Snatched
by NinjaRiderWriter
Summary: Valka had been holding her son when Cloudjumper snatched her away. Instead of being raised by his father and living on Berk, Hiccup was raised by Valka in the Dragon's Den. Raised in a home where he was loved and cherished, Hiccup does all he can to protect his family, both human and dragon alike. But dangers are everywhere in the form of dragon trappers and the Vikings of Berk.
1. Chapter 1

Valka tried to control the trembling in her fingers as she quickly hefted one of Stoick's many axes in her hands, her eyes focused solely on the intruder that had broken into their house, into her son's nursery.

The dragon was unlike any she had seen before, it's dark body towered over the small wooden cradle that held her little Hiccup. Eyes the color of molten gold staring into the green eyes of her son. But what made her pause from swinging the hefty axe into the dragon's backside was the look of innocence and soft curiosity that was in, not only in her infant son's eyes, but also in the _dragon's_.

It was Hiccup's giggling laughter that made the Viking mother lower her weapon, her body locked as though frozen as she saw the deadly dragon that could destroy the room if it but turned around, looking at her small son with curiosity, one of his -for Valka had an idea that the dragon was male- claws in front of the baby's face, but somehow the action was gentle and nonthreatening as Hiccup's meaty little fist grabbed the dragon's claw and held it as though it was a toy.

It was there, in those few short moments, alone save for the massive dragon and her small son, did Valka realize that her suspicions of the dragons being intelligent and capable of emotions other than bloodlust and rage were true. Dragons could be kind and caring, for why else was a believed killer looking at her fragile son with such gentleness and curiousness without even trying to gobble her Hiccup up like the stories often portrayed the winged beasts?

Hiccup's cries of pain alerted her back towards reality, her little boy had shifted in his wooden cradle and in doing so, the claw had accidently cut him at the jut of his chin, just below his lips. The mother within her overtook the warrior within her, Valka dropped the axe, the sharpened blade sinking into the wood with a _shink_, but she paid no attention to something she wouldn't need. Something in her heart and soul told the dark Stormcutter would hurt her, and he didn't.

She rushed to the cradle, grabbing Hiccup from his bundle of wool blankets, and rocked him gently, shushing his cries as Valka continued to rock him, her son's wails turned to sobs, to sniffling and then content silence as he was watched under the care of his loving, protective mother who would never let anything hurt him. Only when his cries lessened and his eyelids started to flutter did Valka look up at the intruder.

The golden eyes of the Stormcutter burned into her, his dark scales practically blending in with the shadows, but it was his eyes that caught her attention as though she had been placed into a trance. His eyes were warm and kind, not cold and cruel like that of a monster. This wasn't a monster like every Viking had been told since they could hold an axe, this was a beautiful creature with a heart and soul that reflected her own.

_Everything we know about dragons… is wrong. _By Odin she had _known_, known that peace was possible between dragons and Vikings, foes since the beginning of time, but what if that time was ending? The end of an era of war and death and war again, Valka could see a new era. An era where her Hiccup was safe without fear of dragon raids, a world without dragon wars. Her son could be _safe_. She saw this, as the dragon's head came closer to her, his molten gold eyes never wavering as their hearts beat at the same tempo, two souls connected to create one. With one arm holding Hiccup, Valka slowly reached out towards the Stormcutter's nose, her palm stretched outwards. The dragon began to lean in, anticipating her touch, she didn't see danger, instead all she saw was safety.

"VALKA!" Stoick's bellow made her jerk her hand away, just in time to see a silver flash as a spinning axe sank into the wooden post, separating the two humans from the dragon. Her husband had appeared from nowhere, his massive, hulking frame outline by the fires that burned from within the village. In his hand was his favorite axe, an axe that had severed life from dragons countless of times, and her beloved Viking husband was staring at the dragon that had broken into his home with eyes that burned like Hel's fires.

Stoick surged forward, fast and nimble for a man his size, the Stormcutter barely managed to dodge the Viking's deadly axe without crashing through the walls. Dread filled her belly as she saw the gentle creature move around in alarm, recognizing the danger of the Viking Chief. Stoick was behind them, by Hiccup's cradle as he glared at the Stormcutter that had dared to attack his family. Fire sprouted from the dragon's mouth in his alarm but also in an act of self-defense, forming a wall of fire right in the middle of the nursery. The fire rose high, and Valka realized that Stoick was trapped behind the wall of fire, whilst the dragon was on the other side with her and Hiccup.

"No, don't!" Tears sprung from her eyes as she realized what had happened, Valka should have known that peace was impossible when people like her husband were in the world. How foolish could she be? Stoick was a _Viking,_ and Vikings killed dragons, she had seen it done so herself. Stoick would never understand the bond that had occurred when she had looked into the dragon's yellow eyes, would never know the love and wonder when looking into the dragon's soul, would never know the care and innocence in the dragon's heart. To Vikings, dragons were monsters, it had been so for six generations; their tradition revolved on the killing of dragons, and tradition was the most important aspect in a Viking's life, aside from dragon slaying.

The Stormcutter looked at her as she cried, his own eyes mournful as he caught sight of her tears. Before she could blink, before Stoick could move, the dragon had leapt, snatching Valka up like a hawk did a trout, and began to take to the sky with Valka and Hiccup in tow.

Valka screamed as her feet left the ground. Hiccup began to wail as he was woken up once again, unaware of the true danger they were in, held in the claws of a dragon several feet off the ground and rising. The little house that had held her little family began to get smaller and smaller, but the massive figure that had rushed towards the destroyed wall was all that mattered to Valka. Because, even though Stoick was a Viking, he was her husband, and she loved him as much as she loved the son they shared. "STOICK!" she cried out as massive dragon carried her and Hiccup away from her husband and Berk.

"VALKA!"

Stoick ran as fast as his legs could carry him, his massive bulk hulking forward as he reached the edge of the small hill-like cliff that their house was nestled on. His eyes never leaving the terrified form of his wife, his steady heart thundering and breaking as he heard the cries of his wife and heir, his little Hiccup. The fire had spread, but Stoick paid it no heed. He just stared in lost horror as his family disappeared into the night. The proud Viking chief of Berk fell to his knees in utter defeat in the ruins of his home, his brown eyes broken and his heart shattered. "Valka… Hiccup_…._" The pitiful whimper that came from him was heartbreaking. "My love… my son…" the tears streamed down his cheeks as he collapsed on the ground, as though all the strength in his massive body had disappeared with his family.

"Hiccup… Valka," he whispered again, his vision blurry by tears as he lay there in the ashes of his life.

The Chief of Berk did not know how long he laid there in the burned ruins of his infant son's nursery, long after the fire had sputtered out when it had meet the stonework of the other rooms. But Stoick the Vast did not care about the conditions of his home, all he cared about was his wife and son, taken from him by a demon of the skies.

"Stoick! Stoick, where are ya?!" The bellow of Gobber barely roused him from his thoughts, he just continued to stare at the sky that had begun to lighten with the arrival of dawn. He heard the clunk of his best friend's peg leg before he saw him, but even that did not stir him.

Gobber was a hulking man like Stoick, though where Stoick's hair was a fiery mane of red, Gobber's hair was as golden as wheat, but other than that they were similar in all ways Viking. One of his hands was missing, torn off during a raid in their youth, but now had an axe attached to the stump. Gobber was like a brother to him, but he didn't need Gobber right now, he needed Valka and Hiccup… but they were gone, snatched before him.

"What _happened,_" Gobber asked gob smacked as he looked at the burnt remains of the room where his leader was lying in.

"Dragon," Stoick whispered, his voice gruff and broken from inhaling too much smoke, though perhaps it was grief that had overtaken him.

The village's smith swears were so vivid and descriptive they would have cowed a sailor. "Where are Hiccup and Valka?" Gobber asked, looking around for the powerful warrior and her little, sweet son that Gobber loved to spoil with little carved toys. He finally looked at Stoick and noticed instantly that something was wrong, his friend's face was as pale as a corpse, his hair singed, but it was his _eyes_ that terrified him. They were empty, shattered like broken glass, devoid of life. It terrified the burly Viking, he had never seen Stoick so defeated, so broken, so lost.

"What happened, Stoick? Where are Hiccup and Valka?" He whispered to his friend fearfully, not wanting to know the answer, but the absence of Valka and Hiccup was painfully apparent to the blacksmith. His heart sank when he saw the tears form in Stoick's eyes, in all of his years of knowing the great Viking warrior Gobber had _never_ seen Stoick cry, not even when they had been wee lads with wooden swords. _By Freyja, no…_

"No… no, no, no…" Gobber mumbled, "No, no, no. Not them, please Stoick, tell me this is some sick joke, not Hiccup and Valka…"

Stoick didn't say anything, but the tears still came, washing away the ash that still coated his cheeks. "It took them," he whispered, his voice hoarse and broken. "It took Valka and Hiccup."

_It took them to their deaths._

By Thor, it _hurt_. Where Stoick's heart had been was nothing, wilted away like a blossom in winter. He felt nothing; life suddenly had no meaning. It was as though he had been made a draugr, devoid of life but still in the land of living, but just barely. He didn't notice the meaty hand clasping his shoulder, too caught up in his numbing pain.

Gobber didn't say anything; his own eyes swarming with unshed tears. He looked around at the ruins of Hiccup's nursery, his eyes suddenly caught on the sight of Hiccup's wooden cradle. He strode over to it, the wool that had warmed the babe had grown grey from the ash, but that small spot of crimson was all he saw. Gobber might not be the smartest man in the world, but even he knew what that little dot of red was. Hiccup's blood.

Hiccup_…_ memories of the babe flashed through his mind. When he had been first born, how tiny he had looked in Stoick's arms, how weightless he had been in Gobber's. He remembered how happy Valka and Stoick were with their little boy. He remembered presenting the heir of Berk his first toy, a little wooden Viking to play with when he was older, though the boy had started to gnaw on it with his toothless gums before Valka had swiftly taken it away when the boy tried to swallow it. That little babe who used to giggle and pull at his da's beard… _gone._ The blood just confirmed it.

Anyone who was snatched during a raid, be they human or livestock, had never returned and while humans were rarely taken, as a Viking would fight off any dragon that tried to snatch them, those who had had yet to be heard from. It was assumed by all that those snatched were taken by to the dragon's nest and eaten.

"They're gone," he heard Stoick sob again, his massive shoulders quivering. "My wife and son are gone."

With a heart as heavy as lead, Gobber walked over to his chief, who looked so utterly defeated and broken it hurt just looking at him. Stoick was the ideal Viking; strong, fierce, protective, proud, and undefeatable… but now Stoick the Vast was a broken man with a shattered heart.

"We need to find the other villagers, make sure they're okay," Gobber told the mourning man, hoping to break him from dark thoughts. He knew that Stoick would need time, but Stoick was chief and Berk needed him. "The raid was a bad one… we're lost others, Stoick… Hiccup and Valka were just two of ten." The dragons had begun to become fiercer lately and more bold as they had started to attack Berk more often than before.

When Gobber touched Stoick's shoulder, the man reared back as though he had been burned. "Don't touch me!" The Chief of Berk got to his feet and stalked out of the ruined home, the house that had been the home of his family for countless generations, but now it was destroyed and empty, as his family now was. He was the last one; his wife and son were dead.

They were dead because he didn't kill that Thor damned Stormcutter, and his wife and son had paid for his weakness. That dragon may have burned down his home, but it had destroyed his life in the process. His family… gone in the blink of an eye.

A rage burned within him so hot it made his vision swarm red, his fist clenched so hard that his dirty nails cut into his palm, causing droplets of blood to form and drip onto the ground. With a roar of rage, hatred, and sorrow, Stoick the Vast punched the burnt wall besides him. The entire thing collapsed upon itself, the burnt timber collapsing on the ground in an ashy heap. Gobber stumbled back nervously, knowing full well to leave Stoick alone at the moment unless he wanted his other arm torn off.

"The dragons did this, Gobber," Stoick's voice was dark and murderous, his eyes as cold as Niflheim itself. "The dragons killed my wife and son. They _will_ pay for this." The Viking clenched his axe in his hand, his knuckles white and bloody. "I will kill them all_." _He declared as he looked onwards towards the dawn, the sunrise was so beautiful that Stoick wanted to laugh in morbid amusement. "As the gods as my witness I, Stoick the Vast, Chief of Berk, son of Hamish the Fourth, swear by my axe, blood, and soul to avenge the death of my wife and son. I swear to kill every dragon I can with no mercy and no hesitation, I vow to kill the dragon that killed Valka and Hiccup with this axe, the axe I should have used to save them. I swear to avenge my family!"

_Stoick…._ Gobber thought somberly. Swearing an oath to the gods was no little thing, to break the oath would result in instant expulsion from the great halls of Valhalla. A place where Stoick belonged when he died, where he could feast with loved ones long since gone. If he did not follow through with his oath, though Gobber knew he would, could result in him being sent to the realm of Helheim.

"Come Gobber," Stoick said as he lumbered towards the village, "We must prepare for the next attack… there will be no mercy. I swore I would gain vengeance upon those demons and I will."

Gobber didn't say anything; he just stared into Stoick's broken, dead eyes. _How could things change so fast?_ He thought to himself. A day before he had witnessed Stoick throwing his son in the air before catching him, the warrior laughing at Hiccup's giggles as he played with Hiccup, his and Valka's pride and joy. Valka had been humming a song that Stoick would sing with her. But that had been yesterday, and now Valka and Hiccup were dead. He knew what would happen now, his best friend and leader was gone, and in his place stood an avenger that would kill every dragon that came close to the island of Berk to avenge his loved ones.

**{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}**

As the hours dragged by, Valka's fear began to subside. When the Stormcutter had snatched her from Berk, she had spent several minutes yelling at the creature to take her and her son back to Berk. But her cries fell on deaf ears and the great reptile continued to fly across icebergs, sunken ships, and small islands Valka had never seen before.

Valka wasn't afraid for herself, but she was terrified for her son. Hiccup was such a small boy and she didn't know if the freezing winds would hurt him. She could at least thank the dragon for grabbing her in a way that she could somewhat move her arms and nestled Hiccup in her coat. Her precious son had fallen asleep long ago, his small breathing relaxing his mother somewhat as she saw the water rush underneath her.

The Stormcutter gave a throaty grumble, making the mother look upwards. _Odin's eye…_ there before her was a moving mountain of spiked rock and ice, tinged a light greenish blue that looked like crystals from afar. It was monstrous in size, the spikes sticking towards the sky like massive porcupine quills. It took her a second to realize that wherever the Stormcutter had taken them, he was heading towards the rather unsettling mass of ice. She heard cries and roars behind her, glancing backwards she saw dozens of dragon who had raided Berk flying behind the dragon who held them, their forms sometimes hidden by the thick fog. _That's their nest,_ she realized. _A dragon's nest._

There was a small crevice in the ice, which the yellow-eyed dragon swooped through easily. The other dragons followed him, as though he was the leader. It was dark, but somehow a greenish light enveloped the twisting tunnels, revealing oddly shaped stalagmites and stalactites that were rounded and smoothed that was made of dark rock. The dragon continued to fly throughout the tunnels, making Valka wonder just how large this nest was. And then suddenly the Stormcutter gently laid them on the ground, Valka holding onto her infant son as gravity reclaimed them.

Valka's ragged breath was visible from the cold, she feared for her son who couldn't survive such temperature. Clutching him to her chest, she looked at the dragon that had taken him. His golden eyes stared into her, into her heart and soul. She calmed down instantly as she looked on into his eyes, reassured by whatever bond held them. She should be angry at the Stormcutter for taking her and her son away from their home and Stoick, but she just couldn't be. When Valka looked into his beautiful, thoughtful eyes all she saw was herself reflected in them.

"Why did you bring me here?" She asked the dragon, looking into his beautiful yellow eyes.

The Stormcutter blinked, cocking his head to the side slightly like a curious cat. He didn't say anything, not that Valka expected it. With a rumbling purr he turned away from her, his dark scales almost blending in with the shadows, when he turned around his eyes glowed like miniature suns.

_Follow_, his eyes seemed to say.

Clutching her son to her breast, Valka slowly followed the massive four-winged dragon through the icy tunnels. She suddenly stopped and strained her ears, so sure that they were deceiving her. It sounded like rushing water, but they were in what appeared to be a giant ball of ice, and then suddenly a warm, gentle breeze swept through the tunnel. The breeze reminded her of spring, warm and full of life which didn't make sense to her considering her current location. Curiously she hurried her step, still holding her sleeping babe close to her. There was an opening up ahead, a warm light blanketing what lay beyond. The Stormcutter was already there, his massive form clouding him in shadows due to the light, but she still saw his eyes, and that gave her strength.

What awaited her at the top made her heart stop, had she not been holding her son she might have collapsed to her knees in shock. Before her was something that belonged in a dream, something that shouldn't be possible. It was so massive and full of life, it just didn't seem real.

The word cavern didn't do it justice. It was as though she had left Midgard and into a whole new realm. Flora flourished under the bright sunlight, moss clung to rocky spires the size of hills, water ran past her in bubbling creeks and formed into roaring waterfalls. But it was the current occupants that caught her awed attention.

There had to be hundreds of them. Changewings, Deadly Nadders, Rumblehorns, Monstrous Nightmares, Timberjacks, Gronckles, Terrible Terrors, Hideous Zipplebacks, Thunderdrums, Whispering Deaths, and so many more that Valka had never seen before. Dragons of all various shades of colors, shapes and sizes flew around her. The sight of so many dragons took her breath away, never before had she seen the creatures so close and in the daylight. They were majestic creatures, not the monsters the Vikings thought they were.

She heard a soft rumble from behind her, jerking around Valka saw that it was the Stormcutter. Slowly Valka leaned forward, her palm outstretched as it had been in Hiccup's nursery, before Stoick had appeared with an axe in his hand. The gentle creature looked at it curiously, before slowly nuzzling it. He was warm to the touch, and Valka watched in fascination as the dragon leaned into her touch, a rumbling purr of affection coming from him.

A sudden surge of love rushed through her, making her heart lighter than it had been in years. His eyes looked into hers, the same love and affection burning within those yellow orbs was so strong that Valka had to refrain from wrapping her arms around his head, seeing as she was still holding another human being at the moment. She couldn't explain it, but like in the nursery, the bond she felt with this gentle dragon was something she couldn't explain in words, it was not like her maternal love for Hiccup or her love for Stoick. It was something else, a new type of love that she had never experienced before.

With a start Valka realized that she didn't know his name. Did dragon even _have_ names? She couldn't continue to refer to the creature whose soul reflected her own as dragon or Stormcutter; he deserved a proper name. She looked deep into his eyes, struggling to find the perfect name, as she gazed into his intelligent eyes a thought struck her. Valka smiled warmly, rubbing her hand against his muzzle.

"Cloudjumper, I'll call you Cloudjumper."

Cloudjumper seemed to croon at that, butting his massive head against her smaller form. Valka smiled warmly, leaning her head against his own, smiles almost identical despite the different species. Cloudjumper turned his attention to the sleeping babe in Valka's arms, softly and gently he nuzzled the infant with such tenderness that the mother couldn't help but smile.

"You're just a big softie, ain't ya?" She questioned Cloudjumper who merely crooned.

Valka laughed, "What is this place?" she wondered aloud as she spun in a circle, her eyes gazing at the hundreds of dragons flying high above her.

Cloudjumper butted his massive head against her, indicating her to move. She followed his direction until they were at the very edge of the cliff overlooking the nest. She glanced back to Cloudjumper, but the great dragon had moved to the ground in what she assumed was a submissive action, oddly looking like a bow.

Turning around again she saw why. She backed away nervously as she came face to face with eyes the color of ice, but unlike Cloudjumper's they were easily the size of her, and the dragon they belonged to…

The great white behemoth stared down upon her with an inquiring look, how had she not noticed him beforehand? He was the size of a mountain, his tusks the size of the oldest pine trees. She had thought Cloudjumper and Murderous Nightmares to be giants of the dragon race, but their size was downright puny compared to this… this King_._

What else could he be? She had of course heard of Queen dragons, though she had never seen one before. They were massive dragons that guarded the nest of her flock, but this was no Queen. This was the _King._

Even the way he looked upon her was regal and poised, and by the way Cloudjumper bowed it was apparent that he was powerful in his own right besides his massive size. The great behemoth didn't seem alarmed to see a human and her infant in his home, if anything he regarded her with pure curiosity.

She decided to mimic Cloudjumper and quickly bowed to the great King that was staring at her, his ice blue eyes warmed ever so slightly. He exhaled softly, mist erupting from his monstrous maw and enveloped the woman and babe, frost sticking to her and Hiccup's hair like freshly fallen snow.

Cloudjumper crooned again as he muzzled her, knocking the snow from her hair. Though he could not speak her tongue, his eyes said everything: _He likes you two._ Valka leaned into his warm touch, her head resting against his own as she ran one hand across his scaled neck. Hiccup stared at the dragon with big green eyes, a thumb stuck in his mouth and slobbering up a storm, as young babes often did.

"Why do I feel so…" She hesitated, looking for the word as she looked at the home of dragons, after a few paused moments she found it. "_Safe?" _She knew she shouldn't, she was literally in the dragon's den with her small child and no weapons to protect herself and Hiccup, but there was no fear of being maimed or eaten or anything of the sort. She hadn't felt so safe since she had been a wee lass, when her mother and father watched over her and dragon raids were few.

_Because you belong here, _Cloudjumper stared at her with those beautiful yellow eyes.

The former inhabitant of Berk didn't know what to say to that, if Cloudjumper had even said it, because it was true. She looked at these creatures that her people thought were monsters and didn't fear or hate them, she felt as though she belonged with them. Here in this sanctuary, there were no Berk Vikings that stared at her for having a different mindset; there was no ill will towards her for being different from the others. She had never truly belonged there, where such views were despised and mocked, she belonged _here_ with Cloudjumper, with the dragons.

But Hiccup?

She looked down at her precious boy, the boy who had been so small when she had birthed him that she had feared he would perish soon after he had been given life. Stoick had believed differently, that their son was going to grow big and strong and become the greatest Viking to walk through Berk. It was something that Stoick and so many others had dreamed for their children, a goal to be reached by all children, to become big and strong, to become Vikings.

But she didn't want Hiccup to be a Viking. Vikings, especially those from the island of Berk, were cold and cruel to the dragons who could be such gentle creatures if treated right. The thought of her son growing to be like Stoick with an axe in one hand and a shield in the other facing a dragon with the intention to kill was heartbreaking; she didn't want that for her son. Even now, despite him being so young, Valka knew that her son was different. And from her own experience, being different on Berk was the worst thing imaginable to the close-minded Vikings.

She thought back to when Stoick had attacked Cloudjumper in Hiccup's nursery, how she realized that the Vikings couldn't change, that Stoick couldn't change. She loved her husband and tribe, but she loved her son more. She wouldn't allow Hiccup to live the life that had awaited him at Berk, where he would be looked down on and mocked for his difference. She would keep him and raise him right here in this sanctuary. Instead of learning how to kill dragons, Hiccup would help her in understanding them, befriending them instead of hating them.

"This is where we're going to live, Hiccup," she said to the baby who looked at her with wide green eyes, _her_ green eyes. "This is our home now." She looked up again at the different species of dragons that she both recognized and didn't, she looked at Cloudjumper whose soul and heart was her own, she looked at the King who allowed them to remain. "This is our family now."


	2. Chapter 2

"Hiccup? Hiccup!?" The alarmed cries of Valka echoed throughout the inner sanctuary, the mother herself was running all over the den, her motherly instincts on wide alert as she looked for her five year old son that had wandered off when she hadn't been looking.

The thoughts of Hiccup falling off one of the multiple steep cliffs, drowning in the rivers, or accidently stepped on by an unknowing Hobblegrunt, terrified her more than anything. The mighty beats of Cloudjumper's four wings were easily heard, the woman's greatest companion was searching the large nest for Valka's young hatchling, his nostrils flaring as he tried to find the boy by scent.

It took a few seconds to distinguish Hiccup's scent hiding amongst the scent of his nest-brothers and nest-sisters, but they were dragons, and the one he was looking for was human. It wasn't too hard to find after he had become so adjusted to his and Valka's scent.

Valka looked upwards as she saw Cloudjumper fly above her, one of his sharp claws lowered to her level. With practiced ease Valka used her staff to hook herself onto Cloudjumper's claws and allowed him to pull her into the air. She crawled up his dark wings in the matter of seconds and settled comfortably on her companion's back.

Cloudjumper leaned to the left, his four massive wings moving in unison as they banked across the cliffs, Valka herself leaning against him to reduce the wind resistance –and to avoid being blown off of Cloudjumper, though she knew he would catch her- and scanned through the thicket of ferns and flowers for her son.

And then, there he was. Hiccup had grown so much from that little babe that had appeared here with his mother five years ago, he was still small for his age but what he didn't have in size, Hiccup made it up with his brains and sense of adventure, which had honestly nearly given Valka several heart attacks since he had started to walk, which had quickly turned into _running_.

She wouldn't deny it that she loved how much of her was in Hiccup, he had her auburn hair, her green eyes, and was even growing like her. He was a mischievous, wisp of a child, but he was _her_ child, and she loved him more than anything. And sure enough his mischievous had given him a certain type of play-friends that Valka couldn't help but laugh at the scene.

Hiccup was chasing after a duo of Terrible Terrors, another one was nestled on his head. The two he chased he fondly called Pip and Squeak while the one on his head was Tigg. The three Terrible Terrors were nest-mates, Pip and Squeak both sported the same vibrant green scales they were almost identical except Pip's back spikes were black and Squeak's back spikes were blue. Tigg was the only Terror whose scales was a light red with black back spikes.

The two hovered above Hiccup, who had yet to notice them in his gleeful chase. Pip and Squeak dashed around the small clearing they were in, whenever Hiccup came close to touching one of them, they would bolt in opposite directions which made Hiccup laugh even more as he continued to play with them. Pip and Squeak hissed in what could only be laughter whenever they dodged the young human boy.

The mighty wing beats of Cloudjumper made the young boy pause, nearly falling flat on his face as Pip and Squeak scattered again. The second Cloudjumper was close enough to the ground, Valka vaulted off of the Stormcutter's back and landed feet first on the ground, her hands on her hips and her eyes burning in motherly rage.

Cloudjumper guffawed out a guttural laugh when Hiccup seemed to deflate under the gaze of his mother, Tigg trying to hide his small form in the boy's shaggy, auburn locks while Pip and Squeak sank to the ground like chastised hatchlings, their eyes averted from the furious mother.

"Hiccup, what is the _one_ rule we have here?" Valka demanded to her subdued son, her hands still placed on her hips.

"Don't feed Cloudjumper eel?"

As though to prove how disgusting eels were to dragons, Cloudjumper visibly shuddered at the experience. Valka glared at her son, knowing full well he knew the Rule. "No," she said dryly, though it was a smart idea to leave eel away from the Den as they had discovered a year ago which created what they now called 'The Great Eel Incident'.

Hiccup kicked at the ground with his fur boots, "Don't play on the King's head?" he asked innocently, though the King never seemed to mind when he and the other dragon hatchlings played on him as long as they were careful and didn't fall off.

Valka continued to stare at him, "Hiccup…" she said in a warning tone.

The small boy sighed, his lower lip in a pout. He mumbled something under his breath that wasn't heard by his scary mother.

Valka leaned in closer, still not pleased. "What was that?" She pressed on.

"Never leave your sight." Hiccup mumbled out.

"Never leave my sight," Valka repeated the Rule as she crossed her arms. "I can't always keep an eye on you, my son." It was true, as Valka had deemed it her life goal to find out everything and anything about dragons, from secrets that even they did not know of, to secrets that dragons would only willingly share to the only humans that had befriended them instead of hating them, loving them instead of hurting them. She had found out so many things in the past five years she had been here with Hiccup, some of the things she now knew Hiccup had helped her discover (such as the time he had gone fishing and caught an eel, which had resulted in the Incident) and she knew that when her child was older, he would help her in her goal. Because she was so busy trying to learn so much and Hiccup was so eager to explore his home with his dragon friends, it made watching him even more harder.

"I'm sorry, Mama," Hiccup said with a guilty look on his childish features as he looked down to his feet ashamed of himself, knowing that he had most likely scared his mother when she had realized that her child had wandered off on his own.

Valka's frown turned into a soft smile as she looked at her son with Tigg burrowed in his auburn locks whilst Pip and Squeak were staring at the two humans with big eyes. The way Hiccup interacted with dragons always warmed her heart, to think that if he had stayed in Berk he would have been taught to hate and kill these creatures made her glad that she had been holding him when Cloudjumper had snatched them from Berk.

Hiccup might have the heart of a human, but he had the soul of a dragon.

That thought always made her wonder, if Hiccup was like his mother, would he too find a dragon whose soul and heart reflected his own? The bond shared between her and Cloudjumper couldn't be described in mere words, so strong was the bond that bound them, there was nothing about Cloudjumper that Valka didn't know about, just as there was nothing about Valka that Cloudjumper didn't know about. Their souls, once belonging to two different beings, had been forged into a single soul when they had first made eye contact on that fateful dragon raid on Berk.

Would Hiccup find a dragon companion like she had found Cloudjumper? She had to admit, her boy had a way with dragons that had always made her smile in pride, but his relationships with them, even the three Terrible Terrors he played with, were just friendly. Hiccup was friends with his dragon acquaintances, but he wasn't bonded to one.

Valka had to wonder, if her son did truly take after his mother and find that dragon whose soul reflected his own, when would such a thing would happen, as her meeting with Cloudjumper had been a mere stroke of luck that the two of them could find one another in such a large world, and who would be the one to bond with Hiccup? Valka was confident that Hiccup had met all the dragons in the Sanctuary, two hundred or so (1), than that meant that Hiccup's true dragon companion was still out there in the world and Valka would do everything she could for them to meet. The bond she shared with Cloudjumper was something she wouldn't give up for the world, and Valka wished for her only child to have such a bond as well.

Valka would do anything for her son; she would gladly search the seas, skies and lands for the dragon whose soul was bonded to her Hiccup.

Cloudjumper bumped his massive head against her softly, jerking the former resident of Berk from her thoughts as she realized that Hiccup was still staring at her questionably. She shook her head in amusement, before she glanced at her companion who glanced back at the same time. A conversation went between them, unspoken in words, but the two didn't need words to convey their thoughts when their bond was so strong.

"Hiccup," Valka squatted down so she was eye level with her only son, "How would you like to go flying with Cloudjumper and I?" She knew that any offer of flight would be taken instantly, Hiccup loved flying more than anything.

Hiccup's eyes widened in delight, it had been awhile since his mother had allowed him to ride with them, he missed it. He was so happy he practically skipped towards his mother, who gathered him in her arms as Cloudjumper lowered himself and plucked the two humans with one of his claws onto his back. Hiccup immediately sat in front while Valka sat behind him, one arm wrapped around his smaller form instinctively.

As he shifted into a comfortable position, Hiccup turn back to his mother. "So… I'm not in trouble?" Hiccup asked with a small grin.

"Oh, you are." Valka stated immediately as Cloudjumper jumped off of the cliff and flew through the air, his four massive wings beating in unison. "But I can punish you later, we have some flying to do!"

Hiccup looked upset at the fact he would most likely be grounded, which usually meant he couldn't fly with his mother, but the thought of flying now was too grand for him to ignore. He laughed as Cloudjumper suddenly dived, glee etched on his face as he continued to whoop as the Stormcutter dodged multiple monstrous stalactites easily.

Valka laughed as Cloudjumper, egged on by Hiccup's shouts and whoops of glee, became more daring and showed off his superior agility by suddenly diving into a tunnel and barrel rolling through it, miraculously dodging obstacles such as stalactites, stalagmites, and other obstacles with ease. It still amazed her that such a large creature could fly through such small tunnels and dodge everything with the same ease as breathing, Cloudjumper was a magnificent flyer and it showed.

Still laughing, Valka rubbed the side of Cloudjumper's neck, her fingers easily finding the spot where Cloudjumper loved to be scratched, he crooned at her touch as he glanced up at her, amber eyes as warm as the fire that burned within him. Valka shook her head, "Show off." Cloudjumper gave a guttural purr at that, and as though to answer, he beat his mighty wings and ascended high into the air, Hiccup laughing as the Stormcutter did so.

"YEAH!"

* * *

"Sing me a song, Mama… the one you always sing," Hiccup said as he gave a huge yawn, rubbing his eyes with his hand while the other was holding onto his mother's hand as she carried him to their home where they lived with the dragons. The small boy was exhausted from the day he had spent with his mother and Cloudjumper, but the huge smile on his face made Valka know it was worth it.

Valka stroked her son's hair lovingly, enjoying his presence more than anything. She was thankful that she had been given the chance to raise her son instead of never seeing him again and leaving him with Stoick, nothing could compare to a mother's love to her child.

"It's rather late, sweet child." Valka said softly, knowing that if he wished for it she would sing that song to him till Ragnarök, even if the song brought memories of her life from before.

Hiccup looked up at her with those wide green eyes, _her_ green eyes and not Stoick's brown, and a pout on his lips that showed off the thin scar that marred his pale skin caused by Cloudjumper's claw and Valka knew that he wanted to hear the song she had sung to him since he had been a wee babe in her arms.

Valka laid her son on their bed, which was basically a large burnt hole in the rock floor, reminiscent of a dragon's nest, filled with moss and random pelts of fur from hunts to keep them warm, as they couldn't exactly do what dragons did and set it on fire and sleep on it. Though seeing as Cloudjumper was usually curled around the two of them, the pelts and moss were hardly ever used when they had a dragon to keep them warm.

She sat down on their bed, or rather nest, and as she did so Hiccup shifted around until he was lying comfortably on his mother's lap, his head leaning against her chest as she held her small son in her arms. She fiddled with her son's hair, softly combing away at the knots that had formed in his many adventures as he yawned again, eyes threating to close only to be opened with a sudden blink or two.

Valka chortled when she saw Hiccup's vain attempts to stay awake, "If you want to sleep, Hiccup, you can." She said with a teasing smile as Hiccup bristled at the insinuation that he was tired, he was a big kid, he didn't need to go to bed yet!

"I wanna hear the song," Hiccup whined as he looked up at his mother with pleading eyes, lip slightly quivering as he tried to use his cuteness to his full advantage. "Please, Mama."

"I never could say no to you," Valka said warmly as she tightened her hold around her precious child, a small bit wondering what would have happened had Hiccup lived at Berk with his father. _He wouldn't be like this,_ she thought to herself. _He wouldn't be who he truly is, who he is meant to be._

Valka closed her eyes for a moment, before she began to sing the lullaby that had once been something more to her in her old life, before Hiccup, before Cloudjumper, before everything.

"I'll swim and sail on savage seas with ne'er fear of drowning and gladly ride the waves of life… if you will marry me," Valka's voice was soft, almost a mere whisper as she sang."No scorching sun nor freezing cold will stop me on my journey_. _If you will promise me your heart and love and love me for eternity." A tear formed in one of her eyes as she remembered singing this song with Stoick when they had been young and in love, when Stoick had been himself and Valka so, _so_ naïve of the world she had lived in.

"My dearest one, my darling dear, your mighty words astound me, but I've no need of mighty deeds when I feel your arms around me." Valka crooned as Hiccup slowly hummed along with the familiar tune of the song, like his father had done before him.

"But I would bring you rings of gold; I'd even sing you poetry and I would keep you from all harm if you would stay beside me." Hiccup giggled at the poetry part as Valka continued to sing the song.

"I have no use for rings of gold, I care not for your poetry, I only want your hand to hold. I only want you near me." Hiccup's hand had slowly crept up to hold onto his mother's; his small hand was easily covered by his mother's larger hand. Valka could tell that he was beginning to fall to sleep, if the slowed down humming was anything to go by.

"To love, to kiss, to sweetly hold, for the dancing and the dreaming. Though all life's toils and delights, I'll keep your love beside me. I'll swim and sail on savage seas with ne'er a fear of drowning and gladly ride the waves of life… if you will marry me." When the last part was sung, Valka slowly glanced down at Hiccup, who had fallen asleep to the song, a small smile playing at his lips as he dreamed. With a saddened smile Valka lovingly stroked her son's hair, combing through his rugged auburn locks with tender love, before gently kissing his temple before she gently laid him in their nest and bundled him with odd bits of furred pelts. "Good night, Hiccup." Valka said as she brushed away the bangs that covered his eyes.

She left Hiccup to his dreams, slowly standing to her feet she grabbed the staff she had crafted a year ago, though it had been Hiccup who had tried to help paint it. As she left the small cave where she, Hiccup and Cloudjumper occupied, she couldn't help but ponder on the matters of the world occurring outside the icy walls of her home.

Cloudjumper was waiting for her, patiently waiting from his alcove that overlooked the Den, his amber eyes mesmerizing as he looked down upon her. He held out on of his large claws and Valka hooked the staff to him and felt herself being pulled towards her dragon companion. As she settled on his back Valka couldn't help but look towards the cave where her son rested peacefully, unaware of the dangers of the outside world.

How could Valka tell her son that the dragons were in danger? That those he had befriended were being hunted down? When she had been out flying with Cloudjumper Valka had discovered something that had turned nearly frozen her in shock and fear. They had found a dragon, a Hobblegrunt, snared in a grotesque trap made of metal that stabbed into the dragon's side, but the fact that the trap had blinded the poor creature and left there had torn at her heart. There was only one way this could have happened.

Dragon trappers.

Valka had never heard of such men. The Vikings from Berk had always rejected any ideas of killing dragons that didn't involve a sword, battle axe or mace as they deemed it cowardly, even though such ideas of creating weapons such as large bolas or catapults with nets would have greatly helped them. In some ways their arrogance became ignorance when it came to the killing of dragons. Tradition always overtaking common sense. They were too stuck in their ways for there to be change, Valka knew that first hand when Stoick had attacked Cloudjumper that night nearly six years ago. The traps they had found was too advanced for the Berkians, much too advanced for any of the surrounding Viking villages.

But that only created more questions, if none of the Vikings, both from Berk and the other villages, were trapping dragons, than who was?

* * *

(1) The populace of dragons living in Valka's Sanctuary is much smaller than in the second movie due to the fact that the story currently is around fifteen years before the movie and Valka hasn't begun to rescue any dragons from Drago's trappers, well at least until now.

* * *

**Hello, sorry for the long update but I've been trying to plan this story out, and I have a good idea of where to go from here. I'm still trying to get in tune with the characters and how they act, so if they some a little out of character than I apologize as this is my first How to Train Your Dragon fanfic so I've never used these characters before. This chapter is one of the several that will feature Hiccup's childhood as I have several ideas for him when he is a kid, which will be revealed in the next chapter hopefully.**

**Tell me what you think, if you love it or hate it, reviews are the lifeblood of this story!**


	3. Chapter 3

If there was one thing Hiccup loved, it was flying. Whenever he was sitting on Cloudjumper's back at his mother's side as they soared through the fluffy white clouds and the brilliant blue sky, with the wind in their faces and the world spread out around them with nothing else in sight, Hiccup felt free.

Flying was amazing. There was nothing else that could be said about it. The freedom of the world was open to them, and it was nothing he could describe in mere words. The freedom that came from flying was incredible, it was no wonder why his mother loved to fly with Cloudjumper whenever she could. She had often told him that when she had first begun to fly with her companion, Hiccup had still been a young babe but that didn't stop her from making a type of carrier to hold him as she didn't want to leave him alone for so long. Valka had always told him how whenever he had cried, if she just took him and flew with Cloudjumper he would stop immediately. Hiccup was born to fly with dragons, she would say.

As he got older, Valka felt no need to carry him on her back as she had deemed it safe enough when he turned three to sit on Cloudjumper's back in front of her without the fear of him falling off as she would hold onto him, knowing that neither of them would fall when it was Cloudjumper who carried them. Three years later and the six year old loved nothing more than to fly with his mother.

Hiccup glanced upwards as Cloudjumper prepared to fly through the fluffy clouds that littered the sky that morning; he raised a hand and brushed it through the white fog, amazed when he felt moisture. His mother had told him that clouds were made of water, though that didn't stop him from touching every cloud he could. Valka's arms were wrapped securely around her son while Hiccup leaned back into his mother's warm embrace; his head nestled in the crook of her neck.

Cloudjumper, who had noticed Hiccup touching the very bottom of the clouds, guffawed in amusement, why Hiccup didn't know until all of a sudden they were rising through the clouds. For several seconds all Hiccup saw was never ending whiteness, before suddenly the whiteness turned into brilliant blue as the sky was revealed and the three were gliding above an ocean of clouds. Valka chortled in amusement as she saw her son fling his arms in a desperate to get rid of the residue water from their ascension, but to no avail.

"If I catch a cold, it's not my fault," Hiccup sniffed out, rubbing away the water from his face.

"And if you do catch a cold, it will be your fault for not bringing your coat with ye'," Valka replied in turn.

Hiccup huffed at that, stubbornly crossing his arms over his chest to show both his displeasure and to hide the shivers that crawled up his spine from the icy cold wind. He started so quickly when he felt something on him he would have fallen off of Cloudjumper had his mother not held him so tightly. Turning around he realized that his mother had taken off her thick furred coat and had draped it over him.

He smiled up at her, instantly warming up from the thick furs as his mother kissed his temple. "Thank you, mother," he mumbled from within the thick coat, which was greatly hid the small child who resembled more of a ball of fur than a human being at the moment.

They flew for what seemed like hours, Cloudjumper steadily flying through the harsh winds with ease.

"Do you think I'll be able to have my own dragon friend, Mama?" Hiccup asked suddenly, his voice almost lost to the wind.

Valka raised a brow at that, "What do you mean, Hiccup? You have many dragon friends. Pip, Squeak and Tigg are your friends. Cloudjumper is your friend," at this Cloudjumper rumbled in agreement. "And I know for sure that Spitfire loves you for all the help you gave her when she was laying hatchlings, not to mention her little Gronckles are your friends as well."

"No, I mean like you and Cloudjumper."

Valka blinked at the wistfulness in Hiccup's soft voice, realizing what he meant, and it both saddened her and made her happy. Sad because her son didn't have a dragon companion, but happy that he yearned for such a bond.

"One day, Hiccup," she tousled his shaggy, auburn locks. "One day we'll find your dragon companion."

He perked at that, "When will that day come, mama?" He asked eagerly like a child on Snoggletog morning –though Hiccup didn't know the holiday- and his eagerness made her smile bigger.

"I don't know, Hiccup," Valka said truthfully, which made him deflate dejectedly. "But I know that when you do, you will find your greatest friend in him. He will be your other half, the other half of your heart and soul."

_Like Cloudjumper is for me._

"I'd like that," Hiccup said softly, looking at her with those wide, innocent eyes that suddenly seemed wiser than his years. "We could play tag and explore the tunnels, we could play with all the other hatchlings, we could fly together-"

"Not until you are older and I'm there," Valka swiftly interjected, not at all comfortable with her Hiccup flying on a dragon without her there to watch.

He scowled at her, but it was a snarky scowl that Valka knew was he silently agreeing with her but being to stubborn to admit it. "And I'll be his best friend, and he'll be my best friend," he stated with a grin, which made his mother smile and hold him closer.

_He's such a sweet boy,_ Valka thought to herself. _He's kind and caring, Stoick would never have approved._ The thought of her husband made her thoughts sour slightly, though she loved him so dearly. _Stoick would only see the smallness of his son, his unViking nature; he wouldn't see him as I see him. The son is nothing like the father, and for that I am glad. Oh Stoick… why must you be so stubbornly set in your ways? _

"Mama, what's that?" Hiccup suddenly asked, pointing at something in the distance. Valka leaned closer and followed her son's view, her eyes narrowing when she saw smoke rising from the sea. "Cloudjumper," she said to her companion who huffed in agreement and quickly beat his multiple wings and ascended from the ocean and headed towards the smoke.

Valka saw something in the horizon where the smoke was coming from, something that most definitely wasn't an iceberg.

"Odin's beard…" Valka whispered in horror, she instantly covered Hiccup's eyes with her hand, trying to conceal the sight from her young and impressionable child. "Hiccup don't look." Cloudjumper gave a warbled cry, his amber eyes widening to epic proportions, his pupils thin slits that showed his alarm, as he took in the scene before him.

Ships, dozens of ships, or at least what was left of them. It was as though some monstrous behemoth had erupted from the ocean floor and crushed the once sturdy oaken ships that were now burnt husks. Broken wood drifted underneath them, claw marks and teeth marks of various sizes littered the ships, which were blackened by flame that had reduced once strong oaken planks into charred logs that looked ready to crumble under its own weight. Some of them had crashed into icebergs, their broken forms reminiscent of broken toys thrown about by a giant.

But it was the smell that sickened them. A sickly burnt smell tickled at Valka's nostrils, the smell so pungent she had to resist the urge to dry heave, for the smell was morbidly familiar to her. Having been born and raised in Berk, where they were occasionally raided by fire breathing reptiles made the former Viking know instantly what that smell was: charred bodies burnt to a crisp.

"What happened here?" She whispered to herself as Cloudjumper slowed his flight until they hovered in the center of the destroyed fleet. She saw charred bodies on the decks, burnt so badly she couldn't even tell what species it was, though she knew they had most likely been humans. "Who could have done this?"

"What's wrong?" Hiccup asked nervously, his eyes still covered by Valka's hand. He tried to pry it off but Valka's strength was like trying to bend forged steel, there was no chance in Hel that she was going to let her six year old son see such horrors that made even her, a former Viking, sick at the sight of such gristly, gruesome deaths. "Mama? What's happening?"

"Hush, Hiccup." Valka urged him, her eyes darting around them, looking for whatever creature was responsible for the destruction of the fleet. "Cloudjumper?" She asked her companion who huffed several times, signifying that whatever had created such destruction was long gone.

_We should search for survivors, _she thought, even though that could put them at risk Valka refused to abandon those who needed help. Her gentle heart wouldn't allow it. "Set us down," she said to the Stormcutter who, not looking entirely pleased, gently landed on the only ship that hadn't been torn in half or reduced to splinters.

"Hiccup… I'm going to move my hand, do _not_ wander off, do not leave our sight, do you understand?" Valka said somberly, having already looked around the deck of the ship to see no bodies that would terrify her son.

Hiccup nodded nervously, terrified of whatever his mother had been trying to hide. His Mama was _scared,_ Mama was never scared, but she was now. Valka hesitantly removed her hand from Hiccup's eyes. Hiccup looked around nervously, gasping at the sight of the destroyed ship that looked ready to cave in on itself. He instantly latched onto his mother's leg, his head burrowed into her timidly. Valka kneeled down until she was eye level with her only child, "Hiccup look at me."

He looked at her, wide terrified green eyes locking into grim, somber eyes that were like his own. "I'm going to go below deck alone, Cloudjumper is going to keep an eye on you," she looked at him pleadingly, "Please Hiccup, don't move… there are things here that a boy should never see."

"Okay, Mama," he whispered timidly.

Valka nodded her head and kissed his forehead tenderly, she locked eyes with Cloudjumper who nodded his massive head, signaling that he would watch over Valka's hatchling. "Thank you, my friend," she whispered to him, rubbing her palm against his snout lovingly, before heading towards the stair that lead underneath, she paused for a second glancing back at her family, still unnerved by the _silence_ that reminded her of a graveyard.

Hiccup was sitting on the deck; looking so lost it made Valka's heart nearly break. Cloudjumper sat by him, one of his smaller wings wrapped around him like a warm leather blanket.

Reassured that Cloudjumper would keep an eye on Hiccup, Valka hurried down into the ship.

What greeted her was nothing but ash and soot. The fleet must have been carrying cargo, but it had been burnt away leaving charred husks where barrels, chests and crates had been.

She huddled down and scooped up a handful of ash and smelled it, her nostrils flared when she caught the pungent sulfuric smell that was very familiar. "Dragon fire," she whispered to herself. Perhaps from a Monstrous Nightmare. Had the ships been attacked by dragons? Certainly none of the dragons' at the Sanctuary were to blame, none of them would kill humans unless in self-defense.

She had to wonder, were these ships in league with the trappers who had been trapping dragons? She saw no traps, though it seemed most of the possessions of the ship had either been destroyed and maybe plundered, but she doubted the later as this attack must have surely happened only a few days prior.

Valka doubted they had been trappers; perhaps just Viking merchants who had been at the wrong place at the wrong time and one of them had idiotically initiated a dragon raid. If they were trappers, she did not mourn for them. Not when they were a danger to Cloudjumper, Hiccup and the other dragons she cared for and loved, nobody, be they a Viking or a trapper, would ever harm her family while she was still breathing.

She searched through the ash and soot, looking for anything useful that they could use back home. Valka had realized in the first couple of months that there were some things she depended on from humans, such as pots to cook food for herself and Hiccup and any type of clothing that would help with her growing son. This hadn't been the first ship she had searched for supplies she couldn't find in the wild, there were many a sunken ship stranded on drifting icebergs with precious cargo, such as when she had found an old, musty wool blanket she had given to Hiccup when he had been a toddler and the cold affected him badly even with Cloudjumper and his mother curled at his side.

Because of this she knew where to look for things most humans wouldn't consider important, but to her it was well needed even though she hated such dependency from humans. If not for Hiccup she probably wouldn't have needed any of it, but she would do anything for her son.

She saw a crate, halfway burnt and the iron rusting away from sprayed acid –most likely from the maw of an angry Changewing- and cautiously opened it. She was disappointed to see that most of the contents had been burned to ash, though she noticed a medium sized box made of iron. It had a lock, but thanks to the acid it was rather easy to break when she banged it on a post. She opened it curiously.

What she saw wasn't something that other humans would see as precious cargo, but to Valka it was treasure.

She trailed a hand over the worn leather cover of what appeared to be a book. When she picked it up carefully she saw that there were two others, each the same size and with thick pages. She skimmed through it, noticing how some of the pages were had things written in it, but she was more interested in the blank pages. The first book was mostly written in, but the other two weren't. Valka silently thanked whoever was watching out for her, she had been searching for these for months.

The books weren't for her; they were for Hiccup.

She had been looking everywhere she could to find empty books after she had seen Hiccup drawing in the dirt with a stick. He loved to draw, but it was hard to do with only a stick and dirt, and Valka wanted her boy to have something to draw in, with actual pages and maybe even some charcoal – which honestly wouldn't be too hard to find when they lived with dragons- to draw with.

Perhaps Hiccup would be able to create a Book of Dragons, like Bork the Bold's from Berk, though instead of it being a guide on how to kill a dragon, it would be everything they knew of them.

Maybe they could be a Snoggletog present, that is of course only if Valka wanted to continue the holiday with her family.

Sighing to herself at that thought Valka returned to the deck where Hiccup and Cloudjumper waited patiently for her. Hiccup was still clutched to Cloudjumper's leg, small green eyes darting around at the ship before focusing on his mother. She quickly put the books in the knapsack she had left with Cloudjumper before gathering Hiccup in her arms and placing him on the Stormcutter's back. If she held him the entire time as though afraid he would be suddenly lost to her, Valka never noticed, she just wanted to be away from this graveyard.

Cloudjumper spread his four wings and quickly flew away from the destroyed fleet of ships, the smell still lingered though. "What happened to those ships?" Hiccup asked his mother.

"Dragons attacked them, Hiccup."

Hiccup swiveled his head around to openly gape at her, showing off his missing tooth that had fallen out several days ago, it would have been cute had the situation not been so dire. "Nah uh," he shook his head stubbornly, "Dragons don't attack randomly, you said so."

Valka tightened her grip around Hiccup as she spoke, "Not the dragons in the sanctuary, Hiccup. Those weren't the Alpha's dragons, they were another's."

Hiccup's eyes widened at that, "Another Alpha?" He asked fearful, the thought of dragons attacking with the intent to destroy was so foreign to him, had he not seen the ships he wouldn't have believed it. "A bad Alpha?"

"Maybe, my son. Maybe…"

_How could this possibly get worse?_ Valka wondered to herself._ Dragons don't attack so viciously unless they are provoked, but there weren't any weapons or traps, which meant they might not have been Vikings or trappers. Merchants, perhaps? Why would they have attacked so violently? Dragons don't truly live to destroy and burn things to the ground, as Stoick and the other Vikings think, but are peaceful creatures if left alone. What did those sailors do to receive such fury? Was it another King's command that made them burn those ships to charred husks, burning those men alive? A Queen's? The more important thing is, how will this affect my family?_ Valka didn't enjoy the idea of the Dragon Sanctuary being attacked by either man or dragon, especially dragons. She loved the creatures, but she knew that there were bad dragons out there, just as there were bad men, like the Vikings of Berk.

Cloudjumper crooned lowly, as though sensing his rider's dark thoughts. She rubbed a palm against the side of his head, scratching the peach scales with an experienced hand as he purred at her touch. Only Cloudjumper or Hiccup could pull her from such thoughts. They were the most important things in her life.

They flew for several minutes in silence, each left to their own thoughts.

"We should go back home, Cloudjumper it's getting la-" Valka broke off suddenly as she leaned forward, her brow furrowed as she looked at something in the ocean. Hiccup leaned forward as well, trying to see what his mother was looking at. He saw something floating below them, maybe some of the wood from those burned, scary ships?

"Cloudjumper, take us down," Valka's voice left no room for argument, she had seen something that unnerved her and she needed to know if she was right.

The makeshift raft was barely holding together, a measly thing it was, nothing more than driftwood strapped together by frayed rope. But it was what was _on_ the raft that caught her attention. Valka saw the body move ever so slightly; if she looked closely she could see the small rise and fall of the body as it breathed. It looked like a human, a human child.

As they got closer Valka realized that there was indeed a child curled on his makeshift raft, obviously unconscious. Cloudjumper hovered above the child, allowing Valka to get a better and closer look.

He was barely older than Hiccup, maybe a few years older or so. Dark hair clung to his head in drenched sops, while beefy arms spread out across the raft. Drenched furs showed that despite the fact the boy was a child, he was much more muscular than her Hiccup, a son Stoick would have been proud to have.

"Mama… Is that a human, like us?"" Hiccup whispered, his eyes locked on the child with barely concealed wonder. This was the first ever human he had ever seen before in his entire life, aside from his mother of course.

"Aye, son. He must have been onboard those ships, the poor thing," Valka answered her young son. She felt the internal conflict within her, two sides battling it out for dominance over the other. Should she bring the boy back to the Sanctuary, where she could help him get better? If she left the boy out here to face the elements and the wrathful ocean she was condemning him to death, something that Valka didn't want to wish on anyone, even a human. But if she did bring him back, what if he was a danger to her son?

Valka didn't trust humans, she knew all too well how violent they could get, not to mention ignorant and stubborn with their faults. But this was a _child_, how could she call herself a mother, the title she took the greatest pride in, if she allowed an innocent boy to die by either hypothermia or drowning?

_Maybe if I bring him back and heal him, he'll go away when he's better,_ Valka thought ponderously.

"Cloudjumper?" She glanced down at her dragon companion, silently asking his opinion. The Stormcutter glanced backwards at his rider, owlish amber eyes blinking slowly as he warbled something which Valka immediately understood in her own way.

"Alright," She sighed as Cloudjumper slowly descended until he hovered over the makeshift raft and gently plucked the unconscious boy from the floating timber, making sure to not poke him with his sharp claws. Crooning lowly, the proud Stormcutter began to ascend to the skies once again, now holding onto three humans.

"Mama, what's going to happen?" Hiccup asked softly to his mother, glancing over his shoulder to look at his mother with big, wide eyes. "Is he one of those scary Vikings you warn me about?" He asked fearfully, remembering all the stories his mother had told him about the other humans, specifically those who held the title of Viking, and how they fought and killed –_killed!-_ dragons and how Hiccup should always stay away from any other humans that weren't his mother.

Valka knew she should feel guilty for twisting the Vikings' image –though true- to make her son fear them, when in another life he would have been one, but Valka couldn't bear the idea of Hiccup flying to Berk, or any other island with humans, and being discovered by his father, who wouldn't take too kindly to his supposedly dead son that was everything a Viking wasn't. She knew that making Hiccup absolutely terrified of Vikings might not be the wisest of choices, but Thor damn it, she didn't want her son, who had too much curiosity for his own good, to make contact with them.

Hiccup knew that his mother had been born on an island that hosted Vikings, though she had never so much as uttered the name Berk, and had seen the error of their ways, but she had been the only one.

She might have added in the fact that Vikings would gladly eat any outsider, especially a mischievous child, if they even stepped foot on their rocky shores, which she hoped would stop Hiccup from trying to make contact with those of her former tribe when he got older. She knew that maybe using fear wasn't the healthiest of choices, but it was effective and that's what mattered to her. The only things in the world she loved and cared about was Cloudjumper, the dragons she lived with, and Hiccup. She was his mother; it was her job to protect her son, even from his own father.

If Stoick ever found out his wife and son were alive… Odin's eye, that would bring them nothing but trouble. She loved her husband dearly, so much that she continued to remain dead with their son than give him grief of knowing that his Viking wife had chosen the side of his lifelong enemies, the dragons. Not to mention the fact that Hiccup was technically the heir to Berk, and if Stoick and the other Berkians discovered his survival they would stop at nothing to rip her child from her arms. They would attack the Sanctuary, slay every dragon that peacefully dwelled there, because slaying dragons was all that they knew.

If she could, Valka would make sure that both she and Hiccup would remain dead in the minds of her former tribe, it was the only way both sides would find their own peace. She could never return to life on Berk, not when she had realized her bond with Cloudjumper, not when she had a lifelong goal to fulfill of discovering all dragon secrets, something that she knew Hiccup would gladly aid when he grew older. She would never let her son become like his father, the thought of such a thing happening was too great a pain to think of.

"He's going to be staying with us for a little while, Hiccup. Just until he can get back on his feet," she told her son, who nodded his head shyly, scared eyes continuously darting down to Cloudjumper's feet where the unconscious boy was. "I don't think he's a Viking, Hiccup."

"So he won't eat me?" Hiccup asked immediately, speaking what was currently going on in his mind.

Valka heard Cloudjumper guffaw at that, which made the former Viking glare at her dragon companion in indignation, "No, he won't eat you. And if he does try to, well," she rubbed the Cloudjumper's side lovingly, "We have a very protective Stormcutter to protect you, and me as well." She added as an afterthought, knowing that even if she had to fight a Bewilderbeast with nothing but her fists, she would gladly do so if it meant saving her son.

Hiccup nodded his head, comforted by the thought of his mother and Cloudjumper by his side. "Does he have a name?" He asked, "Humans have names, right? I have a name and you do too, or are we the only ones?"

_Maybe isolation from humankind hasn't helped him in regards to human culture, but what can you expect?_ Valka thought to herself wryly, "I'm sure he does, son. But he's asleep right now, but when he wakes up I'm sure we'll learn it."

Cloudjumper swiftly began to climb into the sky, his massive forming literally jumping through the clouds, as his name so stated, as the Stormcutter, his rider and her hatchling, and the other odd smelling hatchling headed towards their home.

"Is he going to stay with us forever?" Hiccup had to ask as they glided above the clouds, glancing down at the unconscious boy with eyes full of wonder.

That made Valka freeze, because she honestly didn't know the answer. "Maybe, maybe not. We'll see when he wakes up."


	4. Chapter 4

The boy was stubborn, that was something Valka had learned early on. When Cloudjumper had finally returned them to their home, Valka had rushed the freezing boy into the cave they shared with Cloudjumper.

The boy had a mild case of hypothermia, had he been left out on that raft for any longer he might have gotten severe frostbite, but luckily for the mysterious child he had been found by them. It hadn't been too hard to get the boy warm when she had Cloudjumper spit a couple of fireballs on the ground near the boy to keep him warm. Though the boy seemed to be fighting off his sickness with surprising speed.

Valka had immediately rushed towards the small cache of herbs she had gathered before hand, in the off chance she or Hiccup had been injured or got a fever. When she had been a Viking back on Berk, she spent most of her time exploring the thick forests that surrounded the tiny wooden village and Gothi, the village elder, would tell her which herbs would heal a fever, fight off infections, or kill you. Luckily she remembered what the wise elderly woman had taught her over the years, though she had never been a healer she did have a knack for remembering which herb would fight off the common cold (which on Berk was likely to kill you before you could so much as sneeze), what could be used for burn ointments (another necessity on Berk where they were subject to dragon raids), and to fight off infections.

Cloudjumper was curled at the boy's side, one of his smaller secondary wings wrapped around the boy's body like a warm, leather blanket. Color was slowly retuning to the boy, but Valka knew that the boy would most likely have a fever when he would wake up.

"Hiccup, could you grab me those herbs over there, the ones with the rounded leaves? Oh, and grab me some dragon nip from outside," Valka asked her son as she warmed up a pot of water.

Valka's son hurried over and grabbed the right leaves before scurrying off to the cliffs where dragon nip grew in abundance. When he returned Valka had already mashed up the herbs and soon quickly mashed up the dragon nip before brewing it in the warm water. Grabbing a bowl carved from stone, Valka quickly poured the medical tea and rushed over to the unconscious and freezing child.

She had noticed one interesting thing about the boy they had rescued, and that was the tattoos on his chin. They were dark blue and looked tribal, though it looked nothing like a tattoo from a Viking culture, perhaps he really was a merchant, or rather a merchant's son. Valka remembered that merchants often had their children with them when they went on voyages, such as Trader Erik and his young son Johan when they had traded with Berk.

She tilted his chin upwards and slowly poured the medical tea in his mouth, helping him swallow so he wouldn't choke. She had put the dragon nip into the tea to help the boy sleep restfully, to help him get through most of his fever without him having to be unconscious. It wouldn't do good for the boy to wake up when Valka or Hiccup were asleep and wandered the tunnels, either getting lost or running into a sleeping dragon. Of course none of their dragons would hurt him, but the boy obviously wouldn't know that.

Hiccup was crouched by the boy who was sleeping where Hiccup himself usually slept with his mother, he was frowning at the boy though anyone could see the fascination as he looked at the first human being besides his mother at a closer distance. "When will he wake up?" he asked her curiously as he looked at his mother.

Valka looked at the sleeping boy with a light frown, "I don't know, Hiccup. I gave him some dragon nip to help him sleep, but he will wake up when he's ready to wake up. Just be patient."

Hiccup scowled at that, crossing his arms with an agitated huff. Hiccup _hated_ waiting because it took _forever._

"I'm hungry," he declared as he felt his tummy rumble. "Can I go get something to eat, Mama?"

Valka looked up from where she was mashing up more herbs for more tea, "Only if Cloudjumper goes with you. I don't want you wandering off in the tunnels, it's almost time for bed." She said as Cloudjumper perked his head up at the mentioning of his name.

Hiccup looked up at her with pleading eyes, "But I wanna _explore_!" He stressed the last word with a pleading tone, eyes widened with tears as he tried to use his adorableness to sway his mother to let her make an exception this one time.

The only problem was that whenever Hiccup wanted something, he always tried to use his six year old charm on his mother and while it worked most of the time, this wasn't one of those times. She crossed her arms which Hiccup mimicked, "Hiccup…" she started threateningly, staring at her son with eyes that promised motherly punishment. "Need I remind you that you're still in trouble for wandering off a week ago to explore with Pip, Squeak and Tigg? Do you want to add onto your grounding?"

Hiccup deflated at her words, realizing that he had lost. "Fine," he huffed out before he brightened considerably when he caught Cloudjumper's gaze. "Come on Cloudjumper, let's go eat!" He quickly crawled up on the Stormcutter's scaled shoulder as Valka's dragon companion got to his feet with a warm purr. Valka couldn't help but smile as she watched the two leave their cave to get dinner.

_My boys,_ she thought contently as she watched Cloudjumper's tail recede into the tunnel that outwards towards the main area of the Sanctuary.

Valka sat down on a small rounded pillar of rock, a natural chair, and grabbed her staff. She traced a finger against the curved wood, grinning warmly when she looked at the splashes of bright blue and yellow paint that had been smeared by Hiccup in his attempt to make his mother's staff look even cooler than it already was. She tapped one of the curved ends against the stone floor, listening to the rattles with a concentrated look in her eye. She had begun to realize how she could convey messages to dragons without a word if she used the rattles in a certain way.

She did not know how long she sat there inspecting her staff, it could have been hours for all she knew. Cloudjumper and Hiccup were most likely fishing at the moment, trying to bring back food for supper for her to cook. Valka had surprisingly gotten better at cooking over the past six years. Before she couldn't even cook meatballs without nearly killing someone, but after having to take care and feed Hiccup as well as herself she had slowly gotten better and thus she wouldn't accidently kill her own offspring with her cooking.

Valka heard movement, the sound of blankets being tossed and turned. She turned around to see the boy she had been nursing back to health slowly opening his eyes. She rushed forward with another bowl of herbal tea, without the dragon nip, and approached the conscious boy.

Valka knelt down by the boy's side, watching him looking around at his surroundings in a feverish haze. She noticed that his eyes, while slightly glazed and unfocused, were a light brown, almost amber in appearance. His sickly pale skin clashed terribly with his tattoos, making him look even sicker.

"W-Where…" The sickly boy began to hack and Valka immediately handed him some more of her herbal tea, which the boy gratefully drank. "Where am I?" The boy asked her again, his voice hoarse from fever but Valka could hear the fear in his voice.

It made sense. The boy must have been on those ships when the dragons attacked, his father or mother most likely having died during the attack, maybe even sacrificing themselves so their son could escape on that raft. It was something she herself would have done for Hiccup. A parent would do anything for their child.

"You're in my home," she whispered softly, keeping her voice light to keep him calm.

Something about her must have made the boy relax, for he slowly laid back down, though he still looked around the cave with confusion. "You live in a cave?" He asked curiously.

"Aye, I do." Valka didn't really wish to reveal the small bit of information that she, and now he for a short time, lived in a dragon Nest filled with dragons and an Alpha. She knew that if the boy were to know that, he wouldn't trust her and would probably die of fright. She would tell him later, only after easing him into trusting her.

"My son and I found you on a raft, we found a destroyed fleet rather close to where we found you, were you on one of those ships?" She asked him.

The boy's eyes widened in alarm, as though only now just remembering. "M-My father!" He tried to shout out, but his voice cracked halfway through and he returned to hacking terribly.

She placed a hand on his shoulder, steadying him. He looked up at her, those amber eyes filled with tears threatening to spill like floodwater. "Where's my father?" He whispered to her, begging her, he looked so small and pitiful as he huddled there with those watery eyes it made Valka want to weep alongside him, for she knew what had happened to this boy's father.

"I'm so sorry," Valka said mournfully, as the boy started to weep uncontrollably, his built form shuddering and quivering.

"N-No… my Da can't be gone, he c-cant!" the boy wept, his amber eyes broken in grief.

Valka remained silent, her tongue stuck as she watched the boy mourn his father. It was odd, speaking to another human being that wasn't her own son, and never before had she been in such a dire and sorrowful situation such as this, so she stayed silent and let the son mourn for his father.

She waited patiently until the tears had run their course, and his shuddering and quivering had slowed down. When she felt the time was right, Valka softly asked him, "What is your name, little one?"

He looked at her, rubbing his hand against his dripping nose and managed to croak out, "I'm Eret, s-son of Eret."

"Hello Eret, my name is Valka." She said kindly, not wishing to aggravate the mourning child any further. She wiped away the tears that still trailed down his cheek. Her voice was soft and quiet as she asked him what she desperately wanted to know, but couldn't until he had calmed down enough for her to inquire, "Eret… what happened to those ships?"

He gulped back tears and cries and stared at her instead, his eyes still watery and now tinged with redness from his grief and sorrow. He looked at her with wide eyes filled with absolute terror and fear as he remembered, "D-Dragons…"

Valka felt her heart sinking at those words, though she had already known. "Do you know why they attacked you?" Most likely one of the sailors had done something incredibly stupid to cause such an attack.

Eret shook his head, "No… they… they just came out of, of _nowhere_… there were so many," he whispered, his voice filled with absolute terror. "They were scary and they burned everything and they took stuff…"

"They _took_ stuff?" Valka inquired sharply, "Like livestock?"

"No. They took our cargo. They took our barrels of cloth, they took our crates of weapons, they took our furs, they took everything!" Eret exclaimed, his glazed from both fever and memory.

_Dragons took their cargo? It would explain why there was nothing left on the ships save those books… but a dragon cares not for furs and cloth or weapons. If they had carried sheep or yak, I would not be surprised, but that sort of cargo? No dragon would need such things… but then why did they take it?_ Valka thought to herself in bewilderment.

She couldn't think of any answers and that unnerved the woman greatly.

"Is my Da dead?" Eret asked hoarsely.

"I'm afraid so, little one… I'm afraid so," Valka said just as hoarse, for she truly did feel terrible for the boy. He was only a little bit older than Hiccup and lost a father. This was a child mourning the loss of a parent, and though however cold she might be to humans, she was still human herself with a beating heart and not even she could feel nothing for the boy who had lost everything.

Valka grabbed another bowl of steaming tea, without the dragon nip, and handed it to the boy who drank it gratefully.

"You're safe here Eret," She assured the child wrapped in furs. "You won't be hurt anymore, you're safe."

Eret looked up at her with mournful eyes, "D-Did you find any survivors in the fleet? Even if my Da is…" he trailed off as he choked on his own words, but somehow found the strength to continue, "You know… Did anyone else survive the attack?"

Valka stayed silent, not knowing how to respond to the already grief-stricken boy. Nobody had survived the dragon attack, she had seen the burnt corpses herself.

Eret noticed her silence and realized that his question had been answered, tears silently streamed down his cheeks and dripped off of his tattooed chin. He latched onto her, sobbing against her leather armor as he held her as though she were a lifeline. Valka stiffened at the touch, unfamiliar with the touch of another human being outside of her own son, but the way he held onto her, it was just like when Hiccup had nightmares of scary Vikings trying to eat him and he would latch onto his mother as though she were his lifeline until she managed to coerce him back to sleep with promises that she would never have anything or anyone ever hurt him. She slowly wrapped her arms around his burly shoulders, hugging him back as he snuggled closer, she could feel the tears seeping through her furs but she didn't mind it.

"You're safe, Eret," she whispered to him again as she stroked his ebony locks, like she did when she held a scared Hiccup. "You're safe…"

Eret looked up at her, eyes reddened by tears and his nose ran but he held himself in a desperate attempt to appear calm. "I'm-" Eret paused, the words chocking him as he looked at something behind Valka. Brown eyes as light as amber widened to epic proportions, Valka saw the boy go pale as he began to quiver in what could only be pure terror. Eret screamed, the sound echoing off of the cave's walls.

Valka turned around swiftly when she heard Eret scream, instantly rising into a crouch to attack whatever intruder had dared to enter her home. She relaxed instantly when she saw that it was just Cloudjumper, Hiccup on his back, with a mouth full of fish. She paled when she realized that _Cloudjumper_ was here, where Eret could see him. She hadn't told him that he was currently residing in a dragon Nest, where hundreds of dragons lived.

"Eret!" She called out to him, but the son of Eret only screamed again, a scream full of complete and utter terror as he gazed at the confused Stormcutter, not seeing the gentle creature that Valka and Hiccup saw, but one of the monsters who had destroyed his fleet and killed his father. Eret fled, racing away from the massive dragon as fast as his feet could carry him, but stopped when he realized that he was in a cave with only one entrance, which Cloudjumper was currently blocking.

Eret pinned himself against the wall, desperately trying to hide himself from the burning amber eye of the demon staring at him, the eyes burned into him like miniature suns. All Eret could think of was the dragon attack, where his father was killed protecting him, where all the sailors were burned to crisps and Eret was the only survivor because his father had placed him on a raft, sacrificing himself to save his son. That demon was a dragon, dragons killed people! Why was there a dragon in the nice lady's home? Why wasn't she screaming in terror or screaming for an axe? Why was there a boy nestled on the demon's back? He thought these questions rapidly, trying to make sense through his petrifying terror.

"Eret," Valka slowly approached him as though he were a wild animal, "Eret, calm down." She said softly, hoping that her own relaxation would make the child calm down, if only enough so she could explain.

"D-Dragon," Eret whispered, pointing a shaking finger at Cloudjumper with absolute terror.

"Aye, that's a dragon." Valka agreed as she slowly edged closer, "His name is Cloudjumper. He won't hurt you, I promise."

Eret shot her a look of bewilderment mixed with fear, his amber eyes kept darting between her and the prideful Stormcutter. "It has a name?" He said it as though repulsed which made Valka internally scowl at the usage of the word 'it' as though Cloudjumper was just some mindless beast.

"He," she stressed the word, "Won't hurt you. He's my friend. He's nice." Eret stared at her with wide eyes, sweat beading down his forehead from the terror pulsing within him, but now he was both terrified and confused. What did she mean that the dragon was her friend? Dragons were evil; everyone knew that. Dragons had killed his father. Dragons weren't _nice;_ they were evil creatures that killed anything they saw, that's what everyone said.

Valka wished that her beloved dragon hadn't appeared just yet, though she couldn't blame Cloudjumper for entering his own home without knowing that his presence wouldn't be very well received. "Eret… there's something you should know." She glanced backwards at Cloudjumper, staring into his warm amber eyes and slowly motioned him to come forward.

Cloudjumper began to shuffle forward towards the two humans slowly, as though he knew that he was scaring the younger hatchling. He was so caring and kind, he might look to be mean on the outside with his sharp teeth and claws, but on the inside Cloudjumper was sweet and gentle, but yet people never saw the inside, only the outside that made them think dragons mere savage beasts. She had been the only one to see what a dragon could be, a gentle and intelligent creature. She knew she shouldn't be angry at Eret for acting the way he did, she knew that the child was most likely terrified of dragons from that attack, it made sense for the boy to react that way when he saw a Stormcutter hobble into what he had thought to be a safe haven.

Eret tensed like a cornered animal while Valka remained as relaxed as one could be. Cloudjumper approached her, purring contently when she stroked his blue-tinted jaw tenderly. Eret watched on as he saw the woman who had saved him petting a dragon, a demon of the skies, as though it were some tame housecat. And the dragon wasn't even trying to eat her! Why wasn't he eating her like all dragons did?

"Eret, you're not just in a cave." Valka said as she leaned against Cloudjumper's scaled shoulder, finding comfort in his presence. "You're in a Nest. A dragon Nest."

If Eret had been terrified before, now he was actually paralyzed. He had heard of Nests from his father; great fiery infernos where dragons dwelled as though it were their own version of Helheim. Dragons were living here. Dragons had killed his father and all the sailors. He was in a _Nest_. He was most likely going to die, but somehow some of the terror ebbed away ever so slightly when he saw Valka leaning against the scary dragon, looking completely calm as she stroked the dragon's snout as though it were a _pet_.

He kept expecting for the dragon to rear back it's massive head and gobble the woman whole; it was certainly big enough to do so. He couldn't stop staring at the dragon's knife-like teeth that poked out of his lower jaw, easily imaging being eaten by the dragon without much difficulty. The dragon had a face that looked slightly squashed with several nose plates that made the dragon always look perpetually angry.

He shivered despite the furs that covered him; the dragon was terrifying. He backed further away into the wall as the woman stepped forward again; the way she walked was more of a slight hobble, as though she was burdened by some great weight though she walked with a nimble grace. "This is Cloudjumper," Valka said slowly as she slowly crept towards him, going as slow as possible as to not startle him, she had seen a fair share of terrified dragons over the years and knew how to approach them, hopefully it would work with Eret though he was a human.

Eret flinched when he heard the deep rumbles that erupted from the Stormcutter with the strength of an avalanche; he glanced back towards the dragon and spotted a young boy perched on the dragon's back. The dragon's crowned and spiked head had hid the boy from Eret's view until now. The boy was staring at him with wide unblinking green eyes, his head cocked slightly as he gazed at Eret with shy wonder. Eret saw that he looked a lot like Valka. _He must be her son,_ he realized as he remembered Valka telling him how she and her son had found him on the raft. When the boy saw that Eret was staring at him, he shyly ducked his head behind the dragon's wide and scarred crown.

"Cloudjumper won't hurt you," Valka said to him as she stopped approaching him, if she wanted to she could reach out and touch him, but she stayed away from him at a comfortable distance. "He's my friend. He doesn't hurt humans." Judging by the way Eret was looking at her as though she had spouted two heads, he didn't believe her in the slightest. She slowly reached her hand out, palm facing him with her slender fingers splayed. Eret stared at it, unsure of what she was doing, he blinked when he saw the hand getting closer. Fingers lightly caressed his forehead, the tips just barely touching him. There was something calming about the action that made Eret relax if only so slightly, he watched as the fingers left his face to hold his hand. He stumbled when he felt himself being gentle guided by the woman, eyes wide in terror when he realized she was gently herding him towards the awaiting dragon.

He wanted to bolt from her grasp, but the woman had a grip like iron and refused to let go of his arm. Realizing that there was no way out of this terrible situation, Eret reluctantly allowed her drag him to his awaiting death by dragon. He stiffened when he saw the Stormcutter hobble towards them, but Valka looked down at him with a warm smile that made him relax if only slightly. "Do you trust me, Eret?"

Eret did, he really did. She had saved his life when she had taken him from the makeshift raft that his father had pushed him on before their whole ship went up in flames. She took him to her home and nursed him back to health. She had saved his life. He nodded shyly, still staring into the amber eyes of the dragon before him. "Than let me show you what you've been missing when it comes to dragons." Valka slowly extended his arm towards Cloudjumper's snout, making him spread his fingers and expose his palm as she did so. Eret flinched when he saw the massive head of the beast getting closer, so close that he could almost touch him.

Slowly, so as to not startle the boy, Cloudjumper softly leaned against Eret's outspread hand, his forehead meeting the boy's small palm lightly. Eret hadn't known what to expect, but he was surprised to feel how warm the dragon was, how sleek his scales were. Without knowing it, Eret was slowly stroking Cloudjumper's snout, amazed at the touch. The fear was gone, instead now all the boy felt was wonder.

Valka watched on, sharp eyes watching Eret's fingers lightly stroking Cloudjumper's snout, watched as they were slowly raised to stroke the lowest of his nose plates, she smiled when she saw Cloudjumper's toothy grin directed towards the son of Eret, eyes as warm as the sun itself. Hiccup was watching from his higher vantage point, clutching onto Cloudjumper's neck spikes as he peeked over the Stormcutter's shoulder. She shifted on her feet slightly, her feet scuffing the ground.

At the sound Eret jerked back his hand and clutched it to his chest as though he had been burned, the wonder was gone as fear retook him. Why had he touched the dragon? Dragons killed people, they ate people, they killed his Da. He didn't care if the dragon hadn't eaten him, it's kind had killed his father and people.

Valka sighed wearily, shoulders slumped as she realized that even though Eret seemed to know that Cloudjumper wouldn't hurt him, he was still terrified of dragons in general. She couldn't blame him, she knew that he had lost his entire life to the creatures, though it hurt to see such fear in a boy's eyes when he looked at her greatest companion. She had to prove him wrong. She had to show him that not all dragons were bad. She had to show him the truth. That dragons were beautiful, gentle creatures.

"Hiccup, why don't you go show our guest your friends?" Valka encouraged her son, who was still hiding behind Cloudjumper's massive form, latched on his back as he shyly peeked over the Stormcutter's shoulder. "It's feeding time for the hatchlings, anyway."

She watched as her young son slowly slid off of Cloudjumper's back, torn between the chance to play with his friends and feed the dragons but having to be with the strange human boy while doing so.

"Okay," Hiccup said as he shuffled his feet, he turned his attention to the dark-haired boy, eager for to playing the hatchlings, which was one of Hiccup's favorite things to do, second only to flying and feeding time. Though he wished the weird human boy didn't have to be with him, but his mother had told him to include Eret, so he would even if he didn't like it.

"Why don't you go feed the Gronckles? Spitfire would really love that," Valka suggested, knowing that Spitfire had recently had hatchlings and would no doubt appreciate it if they gave the green bulbous dragon her favorite type of rocks and maybe some dragon root. It was also the best idea to warm Eret up to the idea of dragons not being murdering monsters, but gentle creatures if treated right. Hatchlings might not listen to anybody, not even the Alpha, but they were rather adorable and wouldn't hurt Eret as they weren't old enough to spew lava from their maws. It would be the best opportunity to have him get over his fear of dragons. "I'll meet you in her den, why don't you go grab a bit of dragon root for her?"

Hiccup grinned up at her, "Okay, mother!" He yelled exuberantly as he hurried out the cave, completely forgetting about Eret in his excitement.

"Go on," Valka jerked her head in the direction her son had run off to, "Before you lose him."

Eret quietly followed, still terrified that a dragon was going to appear from the shadows and swallow him whole. He hurried throughout the tunnel, follow the path until suddenly he was in a small cavern with multiple tunnels leading in different directions.

Surprisingly the boy was waiting for him, the boy was hopping from one foot to the other in his impatience but once he saw Eret emerge from the tunnel that led to where he lived, Hiccup hurried towards one of the tunnels on Eret's left. The boy's lean form disappearing into the shadows.

Eret ran after him, not wanting to be left alone in a dragon's Nest without someone else.

He struggled to move past the stalactites and stalagmites that erupted from the tunnel at random intervals, the tunnel itself was getting narrower and narrower as he slowly progressed through it, sometimes even having to squeeze his way to continue on.

He could see Valka's child ahead of him, sometimes peering back at him with unblinking green eyes, before he crawled through the tunnel like a spider.

Eret watched in fascination as the auburn-haired boy crawled throughout the cramped tunnel on all fours, climbing protruding rock spikes with experienced ease. It unnerved the son of Eret, to see a human walk as though they were a dragon, and for the odd boy he moved as gracefully on all fours as easily as walking on his feet. "W-Wait up!" He called back, his voice echoing off of the stonework as he tried to follow the nimble boy, but while it took all but a few seconds for Hiccup to clamber over the oddly shaped rocks, it took the older boy much longer to scramble upwards, and even when he did he only managed to catch the sight of the dragon boy's foot as he turned a corner, vaulted over a rock, or one time actually climbing several feet when the tunnel suddenly gained slope and the only way through was to climb _straight_ up.

"Wait!" He cried out, his muscles aching and his heart thumping loudly, but the dragon boy the lady had called 'Hiccup' was always several steps ahead of him.

Hiccup stopped at that, crouched on all fours he looked at the boy crawling after him, he shifted impatiently as he turned around and continued onwards, only yelling back "Come! Quickly!" as he scurried away further into the winding tunnel.

Eret spent another minute or so attempting to climb over rocks, his head throbbing whenever he hit his head, before he finally entered another cave, the only light coming from the ceiling which was made entirely of ice, making the room glow a bluish green.

Hiccup was waiting for him patiently, his back turned to him as he began to dig furiously in the ground, which was surprisingly just dirt. He hadn't seen any dirt since he had gotten here, most of the place was either solid rock or ice. Rough patches surrounded the boy, almost as though there was something halfway buried under the rounded lumps.

"Y-You…" Eret fell to his knees, gasping for breath. "M-Made me run and climb on all those stupid rocks in those stupid tunnels _and_ get hit in the head, just so you could dig in the dirt?" he asked in complete disbelief.

Hiccup made a face at him, as though wondering just how stupid the exhausted boy really was. "No, Mama said that we need to feed Spitfire and her hatchlings. Spitfire is a Gronckle." He said that part slowly, as though talking to a hatchling that couldn't fully understand him.

"I know what a Gronckle is!" Eret said defensively, crossing his arms across his chest. "My Da fought them all tha' time, they burned his cargo once… before the attack."

Hiccup titled his head in confusion, "Da?" He asked curiously, not recognizing the word, before looking horrified, "he _fought_ them with those shiny sharp curvy things -what did Ma call 'em- axes_?_"

"My Da, father? Don't you have a father?" Eret asked curiously, realizing that besides Hiccup the only other human being he had seen was his mother, the nice lady who got rid of his fever.

Hiccup shook his head, looking at him as though baffled, "No." He suddenly perked up, "But I have Cloudjumper! He's always helped take care of me when my mother can't."

"That dragon bat thing?"

Hiccup scowled, "He's a Stormcutter."

"Whatever." Eret huffed.

Hiccup was staring at him, his eyes fixated on the boy's chin. Suddenly Hiccup was right in front of him and grabbed the sides of his face, making the merchant's son yelp as he tried to rip his face out of his hands, but the kid was surprisingly strong for a six year old runt. "What _are_ those?" Hiccup asked in wonder, not at all aware that he was invading Eret's personal bubble, he poked at the boy's chin, his head titled in confusion. "Are they scales? Cloudjumper has blue scales on his chin too."

The son of Eret realized that Hiccup was talking about his tattoos, which infuriated that this dragon boy thought he had scales, what did he think Eret was, some type of dragon boy too? "_These,"_ he jabbed a thumb at his chin while his other hand shoved the boy out of his personal space, "Are tribal tattoos."

Hiccup cocked his head at that, not recognizing the word. "Taaatu," he tried to wrap his tongue around the odd, foreign word.

"Tattoo."

"Tattuo?"

"Tattoo!"

"Tato?"

"Tattoo!"

Tattaou?"

"Odin's axe, I will strangle you! Tattoo!" Eret exclaimed as he grabbed at his raven locks, ready to pull the hairs from his scalp in pure frustration.

"Tootuu." Hiccup drawled out.

"_Tattoo!"_

"Tattoo?"

"No! Tattoo!"

Eret quieted as he realized that after many failed attempts, the dragon boy actually managed to say the word. "Hmph," Hiccup said with a snide smirk, his chin tilted up in smug pride. "I think I said it right."

If there were ever a time where Eret had wished to punch a child in the face, it would most definitely be this moment. "You annoy me," Eret said with a deadpan, completely without emotion as he looked at the annoying dragon boy.

Hiccup sneered at him, which only infuriated the older boy more.

"Help me dig," Hiccup gestured towards the rough patch that he had begun to dig in.

Eret grumbled as he joined the weird boy and helped him dig through the rocky soil, after a couple of seconds he suddenly felt his fingers scrape against something that wasn't a rock, but instead was smooth to the touch. He glanced up at Hiccup, only to fall on his back and scramble away when he saw the knife in his hand.

Squinting, Eret realized that the knife wasn't made of iron but rather it was from the tooth of some giant dragon. Hiccup was looking at him as though he was crazy, "Weirdo," the six year old mumbled to himself, to the fury of Eret, son of Eret.

"Who are you calling a weirdo? _You're_ the weirdo," Eret exclaimed childishly, never minding the fact he was goading someone who was easily five years younger than him.

The six year old rolled his eyes, "Are all humans as dumb as you?" He had never met another human being before, but if they were as slow, clumsy and dumb as Eret, than he was glad that he lived with dragons.

Eret's tanned face turned a nasty vermillion, the red clashing against the blue tattoos on his chin. He fumed and turned his attention to the thing in the ground, eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what it was. The plant, he assumed it was a plant, was a light green with bulbous stumps protruding from the base, white thin stalks poked out of the stumps that reminded Eret of hair.

"This is dragon root," Hiccup explained as he cut off a stump with his dragon tooth. "My mother and I grow it up here, where the dragons can't get it and eat it."

"Why?" Eret asked with curiosity, trying to ignore the fact that anything with the name 'dragon' on it usually ended badly.

"It's like dragon nip only much more…" Hiccup struggled to find a proper word to describe the odd effect it had on all dragons aside from Gronckles, he might be extremely intelligent but he was still six, he couldn't even read though his mother had promised to teach him soon. "Stronger."

It still confused Hiccup and Valka on how even the most peaceful of dragons would go absolutely berserk if they all but caught the scent of the root. Even _Cloudjumper_ had gone berserk when they had stumbled upon it, though Valka had managed to calm him down enough to get him away from the dragon root. After they realized that all of the dragons save the rock-eating Gronckles would go crazy aggressive with one another, the two humans had immediately set out to find any stray roots growing in the Sanctuary, which hadn't been too many but still enough for them to bring into this small enclosed cave where nobody but Terrible Terror could reach (though Valka always had the entrance to the tunnel blocked off in case the mischievous dragons got any ideas) and she and Hiccup could reach. The only other dragon that hadn't reacted so badly towards the root was the Alpha, their king.

They grew it up here for the Gronckle, as dragon root was one of their favorite foods despite the terrible influence it had on the other dragons. Luckily Valka had figured out the answer to that little problem some time ago.

Hiccup grabbed something from his roughly hewn tunic, which Eret realized was a small cloth smudged with what appeared to be dirt. He leaned closer to see it better and immediately wished he hadn't.

"Ugh, what is that smell?" Eret asked as he pinched his nose in a vain attempt to block out the disgusting smell. It reminded him of rotting yak milk and dung.

"Dragon dung," Hiccup said with a shrug as he waved the cloth in front of Eret's face, who smacked it away with a heated glare.

"Do you even _know_ what personal space is?" Eret, son of Eret demanded, "And why do you have a dung smelling cloth on your person?"

Hiccup carefully placed the green stump from the dragon root in the center of the cloth before wrapping it up. "My mother thought of it. The smell masks the scent of the root, so other dragons won't smell anything but dung. This way we can carry some around to feed the Gronckles without the other dragons having to smell it."

"That is… actually smart." Eret realized, though he didn't really understand the purpose of dragon root, but if what Hiccup had told him was true, than he would take the smell of dragon dung over murderous dragons any day.

Hiccup grinned at him, which unnerved the son of Eret greatly. The way the boy smiled… it just wasn't human. He showed his entire set of teeth, even the back ones, the lips were pulled back too far, and the smile looked far too dragon-like for Eret to be comfortable with.

"Are you and your mother the only humans here?" Eret asked, remembering the conversation with Hiccup about his father, which Hiccup didn't seem to even know what the word meant.

Hiccup blinked at that, before shyly nodding.

"You two just, just live here. With dragons? Fire breathing lizards who kill humans?"

Hiccup glared at him, his green eyes suddenly alight in an inferno of fury. "Dragons don't kill humans, humans kill dragons. Humans can't be trusted, _you_ can't be trusted," Hiccup poked the boy in the chest to emphasize his point. "My mother told me so!" He said smugly, head held high, remembering all the scary stories about Vikings from his mother.

"You're human too." Eret sneered.

Hiccup looked down at that, suddenly looking mournful. Eret immediately felt terrible, the boy might have been extremely annoying, far too snarky for his own good, had no clue on how to have a civil conversation with someone, and seemed to love dragons, _dragons_ of all creatures_,_ but when Eret saw those wide, green eyes he felt something akin to pity burn within him.

Eret thought back on Hiccup's mother, the nice lady who helped him get better, the only other human he had seen besides Hiccup. "Am I… the first human you've seen or talked too, besides your mother?" He asked softly, thinking back on how shy the boy had been in the cave with that scary Stormcutter, Skyjumper or something like that, and how the boy didn't seem to know how to act when he invaded Eret's personal space.

Hiccup nodded shyly, all anger and sorrow gone, now he just looked confused.

Eret opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn't think of anything. How exactly was he supposed to talk about this with a boy who had never had any human contact outside of his mother? "I-I," he began, stalling for time.

"We should go," Hiccup said shortly as he stood up and began to head towards the opening of the tunnel, his gait more of a hobble than a walk., reminiscent of how Valka had slowly approached him. "Mother is waiting."

Eret wordlessly followed him.

* * *

Valka was waiting for them patiently as she rubbed the side of a large Gronckle whose scales were light green with tints of purple on her back, the Gronckle was moving her foot back in forth as Valka rubbed her belly, tongue lolling out like a dog. Suddenly there was a sudden stampede of baby Gronckles that vaulted over their mother and immediately swarmed Valka's son, who laughed as he valiantly tried to keep the stump of dragon root out of their mouths. "This is for _your_ mama," he told the hatchlings, five in total. Eret hunkered back, nervously looking at the dragons with barely concealed fear, remembering the dragons that had burned his father's ships.

"I brought it, mother!" Hiccup held the cloth that held the root up high, proudly showing it to his mother and also to keep it away from the hatchlings. He suddenly fell belly when a multitude of Gronckle hatchlings jumped on his back, their combined weight making the boy fall onto his belly with a loud "Oof!"

Hiccup shrieked out in glee as the hatchlings crawled around his back, one of them contently gnawing on his ear, though luckily their teeth hadn't grown in yet, while the others sniffed at the cloth curiously.

Eret watched from a safe distance as Valka was tossed the root by her son and gently feed the Gronckle mother it with her palms spread outwards, as though she was feeding a Yak a carrot.

Hiccup was currently playing with the Gronckles, shrieking in glee as he was crawled on by the heavy-set hatchlings, who found chewing his hair to be a great enjoyment.

Eret turned his attention back to Hiccup's mother. Valka was warmly smiling at her boy, Eret noticed that her smile seemed much more human than her son's. She was watching her son play with the dragons as though it was one of the greatest sights to behold. The son of Eret watched as the mother sat back down, leaning against the belly of Spitfire as both mothers watched their child/hatchlings play with one another. Eret instinctively compared them to normal mothers watching their children roughhouse back at his own village.

He watched as Valka picked up a rock the size of Eret's head and feed it to the mother, who licked it into her mouth with a content groan. Valka turned towards him, as though she knew he was watching her, and smiled kindly. "Would you like to feed one of them?"

Eret really didn't want to. He really, really didn't want to. But the woman had been so nice to him! She had rescued him from the ocean, had helped him get rid of his fever, and had even feed him. He couldn't refuse her.

Eret slowly picked up a rock the size of his fist. Slowly, as though unsure, Eret tossed it at one of the baby dragons, who started at the sudden rock that almost, accidently, hit him and gave a sharp wail before fleeing to his mother.

Eret winced as though he had been struck and shrunk away, refusing to make eye contact with Hiccup's mother, scared that she was mad at him.

He started when Valka placed a hand on Eret's shoulder, making the boy peek up shyly at her, his cheeks tinged red in embarrassment. "I didn't mean to hurt him," he said, terrified that he would be thrown out back into the ocean.

"It's alright Eret," Valka gently told the son of Eret, "You didn't know. Gronckle hatchlings can't quite eat rocks just yet, their digestive systems are still too weak to process solid rock. You didn't hurt him, they have strong, thick armor like skin, you merely startled him." She grabbed another rock and lightly tossed it to Spitfire, who merely opened her massive mouth and contently chewed on the rock.

Eret watched in fascination as the Gronckle mother suddenly started to shudder and quiver, her eyes bulging out ever so slightly. He heard what he thought sounded like choking, and immediately wondered if she actually _was_ choking but before he could tell the nice lady that, the Gronckle spat out a spew of lava onto the ground.

The hatchlings pounced on the molten rock, slurping it up like water. "Gronckle mothers have to digest the rocks until it becomes lava, they then regurgitate for their hatchlings to eat. It's rather similar to young humans when they are toddlers, they have to have to have mashed vegetables and fruits."

"I never thought of it like that," Eret said in amazement. He wasn't scared of the Gronckle anymore, though he was still terrified of dragons in general, but rather he felt more curious about them than he was scared of them. He had to admit, there was something about the baby Gronckles that was, well, cute. He glanced up at the dragon lady and her son, "Why don't the dragons eat you?"

Valka smiled at that, bemused. "Why would they?" She asked him as they watched the hatchlings finish their molten meal, their eyes blinking slowly as sleep threatened to overtake them. As one, the swarm of hatchlings slowly stumbled towards their mother, who nuzzled them warmly with gentle tenderness. They piled on one another in a giant pile; Spitfire curled around them protectively.

Eret swallowed as he thought of that. His whole life, dragons had been monsters. Dragons killed his father, though they didn't seem to be these dragons that Valka and Hiccup lived with. Dragons had always been scary to him, but he wasn't scared here.

"We're not so different from them, Eret." Valka glanced down at the human boy, green eyes filled with fire staring into amber eyes. "If anything, we're actually similar. We both love and care. Dragons and humans might be enemies, but not all of them must be." She thought of Berk and their never ending war with the dragons and of herself and Hiccup, who lived under their care. While humans in general hated and feared dragons, not all of them did, such as herself and Hiccup. _And maybe Eret too,_ she realized suddenly, _If I can convince him that dragons aren't to be feared or hated, but to be loved and cherished…_ "Dragons aren't monsters." She suddenly looked hesitant, as though wondering on what to say next. "I know that dragons killed your father, Eret. Yes there are some bad dragons out there, just like there are bad men too. But I promise you, no dragon in this Sanctuary will harm you."

Eret glanced down at his feet, suddenly at lost for words. "You promise?" he asked, suddenly looking like the child he was, instead of the adult he tried to be.

Valka smiled at him as she knelt down to his eye level, her hand cupping his cheek so that he would look her in the eyes. "I promise."

Eret looked at the former Viking, he still looked so confused and lost, as though unsure of what his place in the world was now. "Do you have any family left, Eret? Your mother perhaps?" Valka wouldn't force the boy to leave live with herself and Hiccup if he didn't wish too, if he wished to leave than she would allow him. She didn't fear him telling everyone that a lady who rode atop a Stormcutter rescued him and lived in an icy utopia with hundreds of dragons with her young son, no one would believe him.

"My mother died of dragon pox when I was six," Eret mumbled out.

"I'm sorry."

"It was a long time ago," Eret whispered softly, grief still tinged in his tone. He was an orphan now, his parents were gone and he was all alone.

Valka felt her heart twinge for the human, he looked so lost and hopeless, his broad shoulders hunched with the weight of his father's death burdened upon him. He was so young, too young to look so old and weary. _Odin help me, pray that I am not making a serious mistake,_ Valka prayed silently as she pondered the possibilities.

She didn't trust humans in the slightest, her encounters with the Vikings of Berk –she refused to think of them as they had once been to her, friends and comrades- had soured any reform that Vikings could change for the better. Vikings couldn't change. But could Eret?

He wasn't a Viking, he wasn't a Hooligan from Berk, he wasn't from the Meathead tribe, he wasn't an Outcast, he was just a little orphan boy who she had found in the ocean, close to death. Eret wasn't a Viking, but he was still human.

_You're human too, you and Hiccup,_ that little voice in the back of her head reminded her softly, which she tried to ignore. Aye, she was a human but she and her son weren't like other humans, they weren't Vikings, they were something else.

Though she didn't know it, Valka held the boy's life in her hands as well as his future. If she let him stay in the Sanctuary, she could change his entire view of dragons, what path she chose would mold the son of Eret, though she didn't know it.

_If he stays, he can learn. Even if he doesn't wish to live here, and I won't force him to, he will leave knowing that everything the humans know about dragons, is wrong. He won't kill them so eagerly, if at all, knowing that on the inside they are gentle creatures, not horrific monsters. _Valka thought to herself.

"Eret… would you like to stay here, with us?" Valka tentatively asked the son of Eret, ignoring the completely gob smacked expression that was on her son's face, she was focused solely on Eret.

He stared up at her, those amber eyes still tinged with redness from his grief. "You'll… You'll let me stay?" He asked, trying to not sound so hopeful, he hadn't expected to hear such an offer, Valka and her son seemed to enjoy their isolation from the rest of humankind, so it surprised him greatly that she would offer him sanctuary.

"Only if you wish to," Valka assured him, wanting to let him know that he didn't have to stay with them. "Only for as long as you wish."

Eret thought of his options. He had nowhere else to go, no family to go back to, nothing of his life remained but ashes, what did he have to lose? He could always leave if he wanted; this place wasn't a prison but a sanctuary. Sure he would have to deal with Valka's son who annoyed the Hel out of him, but maybe they could be friends. Eret had never had a friend before, his whole life was on the seas with his Da, he didn't have time for friends. But could he find that here, in this Nest? His whole life had changed so abruptly in the past week, his father was dead and he was currently in the middle of a dragon Nest where hundreds of dragons lived with two humans and treated them as their own. What did he have to lose?

"O-Okay, I'll stay." Eret said.

Valka smiled at him, "Welcome to the home of the great Bewilderbeast, Eret, son of Eret." She said with gentle smile, knowing that sooner or later she would have to show Eret to her Alpha. She couldn't wait to see his reaction when he saw the gentle giant that protected them from harm.

_Thor's hammer, this might actually work._ Valka thought to herself, _This boy needs a home and someone to guide him along life's perils and joys. He can learn from my teachings just as Hiccup is learning. There can be another in this world who views dragons the same as we do. This poor boy can have a home._

Hiccup finally spoke up, having overcome his shock as he slowly stepped forward. Valka's son glanced at Eret, then back to his mother, before glancing at Eret once again. Suddenly he spoke, "Mama, can I have a tattoo?"

Valka blinked at that, "What did you say, son?" She asked him, wondering if she had heard him wrong. She swore she had heard her six year old son ask if he could get a tattoo. Surely she had heard wrong?

Hiccup nodded in affirmation. "A tattoo, can I get one? I want it on my face," Hiccup rubbed his hands all over his face to prove his point, unknowingly covering his face in mud from the dirt on his hands, which helped emphasis his statement. "All over it!" He declared with childish glee.

_Sweet Freyja, this child will be the death of me._

* * *

**I'm glad to see many of my reviewers were correct that our favorite son of Eret was the one on the raft, and now he's living with Hiccup and Valka! I personally loved Eret's character in the movie and he will play an important role in the story as it goes further on in time. For those not liking the idea of him clashing with Valka and Hiccup who are living in isolation from the rest of humankind, Eret is the only one who will be living with them and the only outside human interaction with them aside from Valka fighting dragon trappers. So even though Eret is with them, there will still be chapters where it is just the mother and son. I love writing Valka and Hiccup mother/son feels so those will still be there despite Eret living with them. And for those wondering about Eret's role in the future… the only thing I can say is that he will most definitely run into Ruffnut (I cannot wait to write those interactions) and the awkwardness will intensify! **

**I only have one question, this story doesn't have a main character as it is shared between Valka and Hiccup, but what do you guys think of the idea of different point of views? Most of the chapters I have planned are either in Valka or Hiccup's point of views, as I love both of the characters and there aren't too many fanfictions with the two in it together and Valka isn't really explored too much so I want to include her as much as possible, she is officially one of my favorite characters after Stoick, Hiccup and Toothless. Do you guys want to see other point of views? I have plans for Berk as time passes, but I would like to hear your opinions as you guys read the story and I want both sides to be happy with it.**

**I personally loved writing the interactions between Hiccup and Eret, right now they're not exactly close as Eret doesn't know how to react around Hiccup who has never had any other human contact outside of his mother, which will slow down their friendship as both parties have no idea how to form one and Eret tries to deal with Hiccup, who can be quite annoying to him. Hiccup is really more dragon than human at the moment, I tried to show that with both Valka and her son by using Eret's point of view as a way to show how isolation has treated them to an outside view. Their relationship will get better in future chapters, though they will be off to a shaky start.**

**The next chapter should be updated sooner than this one, it's a Stoick POV so we see what's going on with Berk.**


	5. Valka's Ship

**This chapter takes place right after chapter one, the morning after Valka and Hiccup were taken by Cloudjumper. It is highly recommended that you play the soundtrack 'Stoick's Ship' from How to Train Your Dragon 2 soundtrack.**

The ships slowly bobbed and weaved against the furious waves. Eleven ships in total coasted his shores, twelve people who had lost their lives to the dragons.

Stoick stared at one ship in particular, the ship was like the others in size but that ship would forever be imprinted in his memory, as well as the other small ship nestled within it. Hiccup's cradle had been fashioned to resemble a Viking ship, only now it was his funeral ship. Stoick had made it himself with the help of Gobber when Valka had first told him the joyous news that she was with child.

It had been the third happiest day of his life. The first was the day he married Valka. The second had been when Hiccup had been born.

He had come so early into the world, as quick and sudden as a hiccup, hence the name they gave him, and he had been so tiny in Stoick's muscular arms. Valka had been so worried about their son, scared that he wouldn't make it till morning. He remembered laughing, still holding onto his son, Valka's son, _their_ son and declared that Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third would be the strongest Viking to ever roam Midgard.

He would never know if he was right, for his son had been killed before he had even reached his fourth month.

He didn't have any happy days anymore. All he felt where was once was love was now reduced to burning anger and a stronger desire for vengeance.

They hadn't found any remnants of his wife or infant son after the raid. The majority of Berk assumed that the Stormcutter had taken his family back to their Nest, their bodies feasted upon by the very devil. Stoick's massive hands clenched into tight fists, his strong hands nearly breaking the bow in two had he not stopped.

He was chief. Everyone was watching him, waiting for the signal.

Slowly, Stoick plucked an arrow from a quiver and set it in the torch, waiting for it to catch fire.

It was Gobber who spoke the words, for Stoick didn't believe himself strong enough to speak them. His people had understood, sometimes even a chief must be able to mourn for his loss, and Stoick the Vast had lost everything.

"May the Valkyries welcome you and lead you through Odin's great battlefield. May they sing your names with love and fury, so that we might hear it rise from the depths of Valhalla. We know that you've taken your rightful places at the table of warriors. For great men and women have fallen. Warriors. Brothers. Sisters. Sons. Daughters. Friends. Fathers. Mothers. And a life so young and pure, the life of a child." At that last word, Gobber chocked slightly, grief overcoming him as he and the villagers stared at the floating ships slowly sailing onwards towards the horizon.

Stoick felt tears drip down his cheeks, his eyes as broken as ever. He couldn't fight back the small, chocking sob that erupted from him as he stared at Valka's ship.

There was nothing left to say. For Vikings didn't truly believe in long speeches, they were simple people with blunt, to the point traditions.

Stoick raised his bow, flaming arrow knocked in the drawstring. His broken brown eyes gazing at the ship with tears still streaming down his cheeks in thick rivulets. His eyebrows were still singed from the fire of the Stormcutter's fiery breath, as was his bushy beard, but Stoick didn't care enough to take care of it. What mattered of himself when his family was gone?

Against his very being that begged him to not release that arrow, Stoick let loose the drawstring and could only watch as the arrow arced towards Valka's ship. It hit its mark, embedded on Valka's empty funeral pyre with a small wooden cradle placed atop it. All they had to burn was Hiccup's cradle and some of Valka's clothing, for they hadn't found their bodies and most likely never would.

Hundreds of arrows alighted with fire were released by the other Vikings from their own bows, silently arcing in the sky. They began to descend and it looked as though the sky was raining fiery tears, each arrow meeting their marks of the other ships of their loved ones. But Stoick didn't notice them, for all he could see was _her_ ship, now alight; silently sail away from the shores of Berk. He could already envision Hiccup's hand carved and brightly painted cradle engulfed in fire, just like Hiccup's nursery had burned the night before.

_Valka… Hiccup… I'm sorry…_ Stoick thought to himself, his inner voice heavy with raw grief. _I'm so sorry… I failed you… I failed you both… my love… my son… I'm so sorry…_

Gothi stood by his left hand side, Gobber at his right. The village elder looked far older, grief tinged across her wrinkled cheeks. She was one of the few Vikings that had been truly kind towards his wife, perhaps the only one aside from Stoick and Gobber that Valka had viewed as a dear friend.

The small elder shook her head as she looked onwards at the burning armada, feeling far older than she herself was. She was the oldest of them all, and had been through so many Viking funerals she had honestly lost count. But this one would haunt her until it too was her time to depart from Midgard to ascend to the halls of Odin.

"They feast in the great halls of Valhalla now, Stoick," Gothi said, her voice scratchy from both age and grief.

Stoick looked at the woman who barely came up to his elbow, a sudden rage erupting from him. "They shouldn't even be there," he whispered hoarsely. "They should still be here with me."

"The world is never kind, Chieftain." Gothi said, "It never will be."

Stoick didn't seem to register her words, his gaze still locked on Valka's burning ship. Gothi looked at her leader, not recognizing him at all despite the familiar features. Stoick was colder now, a bitter man with nothing left, a man who had lost everything.

"I will kill them all, Gothi," Stoick whispered hoarsely, anger swirling within him like a maelstrom. "Every dragon I see… they will fall under my axe and sword until no more of those demons fly in the sky. I will kill them all."

Gothi closed her eyes at that, knowing that Stoick would keep to his word. She didn't approve of it, the vengeance that burned within her leader was all consuming, sooner or later when there was nothing left to fuel it, it would destroy Stoick. She had seen many Vikings lose their loved ones and embark on a journey of vengeance; it always resulted in a bitter life until they were killed fighting the beasts they had sworn to destroy. Stoick had only just begun that journey.

"Stoick… As a father and husband, it is your right to do this, but you were not just a father and husband, you are Berk's chief… A chief's duty is to his people, not his family. A chief cannot be distracted by oaths of vengeance when he has a village full of lives to protect."

Stoick bristled at that, "Are you sayin' that I should just _let this go_," he all but snarled at her, eyes full of fury that burned into the elder with the power of a vengeful god. "That I should forget what 'as happened to me family!?" he turned around to glare at her, practically leaning downwards to stare her straight in the eyes. "You do not know of my pain, elder." He said with a voice as cold as death. "For all your years and experiences, you know nothing of the pain that dwells within me!"

"You're not the only one who has lost someone, Stoick." Gothi's voice was sharp. With her small, knobby cane she gestured towards the other ships that were burning besides Valka's.

The chief continued to glare at her, murderous thoughts burning within him. Gobber looked at the scene with uncertainty, actually terrified that Stoick might throw the elder off the cliff, he certainly looked ready to do it. Stoick wouldn't do it though, right? Stoick would never do such a thing.

Gobber suddenly realized that the Stoick he had known from growing up together, as close as brothers, the Stoick he saw become chief, the Stoick who had nearly cried on his wedding day, the Stoick he saw become a father… was not the Stoick he saw now.

His friend and brother was all but dead. His body still there but his spirit gone, it was as though some vengeful shade had possessed his friend's body and now controlled. Stoick wasn't Stoick anymore.

"Stoick… please, not here. Not now…" Gobber whispered to him, all too aware of the gazes from the other villagers staring at the trio. "Don't do this at the funeral… Valka wouldn't have wanted-"

"_You don't know what she would have wanted, Gobber!"_ Stoick roared at him, his face as red as his beard and eyes wild. "You don't know, Val's dead, you don't know what she would have wanted…" Stoick said out the words as though they chocked him, tears streaming down his cheeks and into his beard in thick rivulets.

Gobber tried to find some way of calming his chief down, but couldn't think of anything. How could he help his friend when he had lost his entire family in a single night by a dragon? Valka was dead. Hiccup was dead. Stoick had nothing left of his family, nothing left of life, nothing left but vengeance.

"You're not the only one who misses her, Stoick…" Gothi murmured as she looked out towards Valka's ship, tears threatening to spill from her own aged eyes. "She was like a daughter to me." She said softly. "I cannot tell you how many times she was in my hut when she was a child, learning about which herb did this, or what flower did what. Sometimes I think she only came to me because she had nowhere else to go, nobody else to turn to. She had nobody to talk to, for everyone ostracized her. She was so alone before you came, Stoick. She had very unpopular opinions."

Stoick would have laughed at that if he were still able to do so, instead he scoffed darkly. "An opinion that was false." The dragons had killed his wife, those devils had killed the only person who sympathized them, and perhaps they had taken joy in breaking Valka's worldly views before eating her and their son. The thought hurt him with the sharpness of a battle axe.

"Aye, that is true," Gothi muttered, "But you most stay strong for the village. You are chief and already what happened with Mildew has spread like wildfire."

Stoick looked ready to growl at her like an angry bear, "If you think that I'm changing my mind about sending him away from the village, need I remind you that I was all in favor of killing him?"

"Yes, I am aware. The villagers are all aware of what happened. A chief cannot attack his own Stoick. Even if they deserve it," Gothi said, trying to conceal the anger that had slowly bubbled within her frail form, remembering what had happened right after the raid.

_Mildew. That man is lucky to even be alive at the moment,_ Gobber thought to himself sourly. When the raid had ended and everyone had collected their dead, Stoick had told his people what had happened to his wife and heir. Everyone was sympathetic to his plight, even if some of them hadn't liked Valka and her unpopular opinions, everyone that is, except for Mildew.

The man had openly stated that he was glad that the dragon lover was dead, finding it amusing that she was killed by the very things she was trying to save. Gobber, Spitelout and over a dozen Vikings had to hold back their chief who screamed bloody murder and tried to rush at him, yelling that he would rip the bitter man apart with his bare hands.

Mildew, the complete idiot that he was, had sneered at Stoick's attempt to kill him –not admitting to himself that the chieftain terrified him- and had even suggested that they don't burn Valka's items –seeing as they didn't have her body- which in itself was one of the greatest of disrespects one could give.

A Viking funeral was sacred, all Vikings must be bathed in fire in order to ascend to the great halls of Valhalla, but Mildew had claimed that Stoick's wife didn't deserve the funeral, stating that she had never been a Viking to begin with as she had never gone through their holy rite of passage, which was to slay a dragon. He stated that as she had never spilt a dragon's blood, but rather tried to _protect _them, meant that Odin and the other gods would not recognize her as one of their own and banish her to Helheim, where, in Mildew's exact words, was where she belonged, with the demons she loved. He had even gone as far as to inform the raging chief, who by then was practically pulling the entire village to get his hands on Mildew, that Stoick's son shouldn't be burned either, as he was the spawn of a dragon lover.

Stoick had ripped through the grasps of his people holding him back, mostly because most of them had released him in their shock of Mildew's harsh, though some thought it true, words. Stoick had then attacked him with the ferocity of a beast. He had been more animal than man at that moment, and by Freyja it terrified Gobber greatly just remembering that wild look in Stoick's eyes, as though the man had been replaced by a savage beast.

The only reason Mildew was even still breathing was because Gobber had hit Stoick on the head with his mace, even then it had taken three hefty swings to knock the grieving husband out. The only reason Stoick hadn't killed him when he had awoken was because Gothi had told him that too much blood has been spilt that day, there need be no more.

Gobber was certainty glad that he wouldn't be seeing much of Mildew anymore, because once Stoick had realized he couldn't kill the aging Viking, he had all but banished him from the village, forcing him to live far away from the others in a rotten hut at the base of the nearest mountain. Nobody had disagreed with their chief, everyone secretly glad to have Mildew out of their village.

"People will expect you to take a new wife," Gothi informed him softly.

Stoick jerked at her words as though burned. He rounded on her again, face furious and lips set in a savage grimace. "I would never do that, I would never betray Val in such a way! I loved her Gothi; by the gods I still love her. There will never be another, there will be nobody else, nobody except Valka." He snarled at her, looking more beast than man at the mere thought of replacing his wife when he was at her and their son's funeral. He could never love another woman again, for he had given it all to Valka, and now she was dead and she had taken his love with her.

"You might have lost a wife, Stoick, but you also lost your heir." Gothi said mournfully, remembering Valka and Stoick's small and frail son, now nothing but bones. "A chief needs an heir."

Stoick eyes looked so broken to Gobber when the village elder said that. "I know that Gothi…" Stoick whispered to the village elder, all anger gone as sorrow burdened him as he remembered the son he had failed to protect. "But I will never have another child, not after I failed my son."

Gobber looked down at his chief's statement, knowing how greatly Hiccup's premature death had burdened Stoick.

_Odin, Thor, Freyja… why have you cursed him so? He's lost everything… _The village blacksmith thought mournfully.

"Can we please discuss the matters the succession of chiefdom after this?" Gobber asked, "It's not right… talking about Hiccup's birthright as we burn 'em and his mother."

Stoick nodded his head at that, "I know Gobber… I know…" He looked at the burning ship, the ship that burned as his house had burned the precious night. His family was gone; he would never sing with Valka again, he would never hold his son in his arms. He would never see Hiccup grow into a man, would never see him kill his first dragon during training. He would never hold Valka in his arms, never sing their song again, never would he be able to tell her that he loved her with all his heart and soul. His family was gone, snatched by the dragons.

Stoick would kill them all. He would avenge his family.

Stoick the Vast turned his back on the burning armada of ships, unable to stand the sight anymore and slowly walked away, never once looking back at the ship, Valka's ship. There was nothing left for him, not even the village and her people could pull him from his vengeful path. His duty for his people could be ignored, for now his duty was vengeance upon the winged devils that had taken everything from him.

And Stoick the Vast was never a man to ignore duty.


End file.
